On 29 September 2002 there were 348 prisoners in custody for sexual offences. As my predecessor has explained to this House on a number of occasions, there are currently four forms of direct therapeutic intervention available to sex offenders within the prison system. These are individual counselling from the Prison Service's psychology service and from the probation and welfare service; the multi-disciplinary thinking skills group work programme in Cork Prison, Arbour Hill Prison and the Curragh Place of Detention; the sex offender treatment programme, which has been in operation in Arbour Hill Prison since 1994 and was introduced in the Curragh Place of Detention in 2000; and the psychiatric service which provides extensive support to prisoners in this category.
Every effort is made to assist sex offenders in custody who are willing to participate at some level in their personal rehabilitation and relapse prevention. While it is not possible to accurately quantify participation rates in all forms of rehabilitation, many of those in custody have availed of one or more of the forms of intervention to which I referred.
Sixteen offenders are recruited to the sex offender programme annually, eight in Arbour Hill and eight in the Curragh Place of Detention. Eighty four prisoners have completed the programme to date. In addition, on average, 48 offenders are recruited annually to the thinking skills course, 16 in Arbour Hill, 16 in Cork Prison and 16 in the Curragh Place of Detention. Some 194 offenders have completed the thinking skills course to date.
The number of offenders undergoing one-to-one counselling is difficult to define because of the varied nature of individual counselling provided to sex offenders in prison. This counselling can vary from one session addressing a particular problem to intensive ongoing counselling. One of the main aims of individual counselling of sex offenders is to motivate them to address their offending behaviour. In response to such counselling many offenders, who initially might deny responsibility for their crime or deny any need for treatment, are motivated towards some process of change.
Additional informationFor some offenders this results in their undertaking the sex offender treatment programme at Arbour Hill Prison or the Curragh Place of Detention, for others it results in sustained individual therapy around their offending or engagement in some other programme available in the prison system, for example, the thinking skills course, group skills programme, etc.
The sex offender treatment programme takes about nine months to complete. When pre-programme and post-programme assessment is included, the timeframe for completing the programme is about 11 months. On average, 10% to 20% of offenders eligible to apply for the sex offender programmes apply for them each year. Priority is given to those offenders who are closest to their release dates but who still have sufficient time left to complete the programme.
As regards the number of sex offenders who are waiting to participate in the sex offender programme, the position in this regard is best illustrated by the following figures for 2002. There was a total of 45 applicants for the two sex offender programmes this year. Sixteen offenders have been offered places. The remaining 29 constitute a waiting list for the two programmes. Of these, the vast majority have sufficient time left in their sentence to complete the programme at a future date.