Vol. 513 No. 4
73 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of minors arrested during 1999; the outcomes in relation to numbers sentenced to detention, referred to the probation and welfare services and the number of cases dropped; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2658/00]
I am informed by the Garda authorities that the information sought regarding the number of minors arrested during 1999 is not readily available. In addition, the Garda authorities point out that the distinction between arrests and persons being made amenable should be borne in mind i.e. not all arrests lead to a person being made amenable for an offence.
However, juvenile offenders, i.e. persons under 18 years of age, made amenable for offences are reported to the Garda national juvenile office. This includes persons who are arrested and also those who are detected without arrest e.g. for no insurance or driving licence. For the year 1999 some 15,554 referrals for juvenile offenders were received at the national juvenile office.
There are five special schools for young offenders operated under the aegis of the Department of Education and Science and certified variously as places of detention, industrial schools or reformatory schools under the provisions of the Children Act, 1908. The schools concerned are Trinity House School, Oberstown Boys' Centre and Oberstown Girls' Centre all of which are situated at Lusk, County Dublin; Finglas Children's Centre in Finglas, Dublin and St. Joseph's Special School, Clonmel, County Tipperary.
In general, young offenders under 16 years of age on admission, may be referred to these schools by the courts for periods ranging from typically one month to a place of detention, one year to an industrial school and two years to a reformatory school. Details of the numbers of young offenders sentenced to detention in these special schools for 1999 are not readily available from the Department of Education and Science. However, the information will be forwarded to the Deputy as soon as it is available.
Juveniles may also be sent to a prison or places of detention under the aegis of my Department, such as St. Patrick's Institution. The number of committals to these institutions in 1999 was 766. Each time a juvenile is committed, a record of that committal is created. Therefore, it is not possible to state from the above figures the number of times a particular juvenile was committed or the actual number of juveniles committed during the period in question.
The following table is a provisional summary of the number of juveniles for whom, having been convicted or guilt having been established, reports were requested from the probation and welfare service during the year ended 31 December 1999.
|
Reports |
No. Personsunder 18 years |
|
Pre-sanction reports (other thanCommunity Service Reports) |
1,175 |
|
Community Service Reports |
100 |
|
Sanctions |
|
|
Probation type order |
900 |
|
Community Service order |
90 |
