Half of all prisoners back in jail in 4 years
ALMOST half of prisoners released from Irish jails are back behind bars within four years.
More than one in four felons commit a crime within 12 months of being allowed back into society, a major study has revealed.
The statistics show the rate of reoffending among convicts in Ireland is high, although Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern insists it "compares well internationally".
The study compiled by the UCD Institute of Criminology with the support of the Irish Prison Service shows that 27.4pc of released prisoners were serving a new prison sentence within one year. This rose to 39.2pc after two years and 45.1pc after three years.
By the end of the fourth year, 49.2pc of offenders had reappeared before the courts and been given a fresh jail sentence.
The figures are almost identical to recent ones issued by the British Government, which showed a reoffending rate of 49.4pc.
Commenting on the study, Minister Ahern said: "The Prison Service provides a range of rehabilitative programmes which have the dual purpose of providing prisoners with purposeful activity while serving their sentences and encouraging and equipping them to lead productive lives on release."
Around €11m is spent each year on up to 50 community based projects to assist the Probation Service which try to integrate ex-offenders back into society by providing a range of supports including work training, addiction counselling and accommodation.
Other services such as healthcare, psychiatric, psychological and educational are also made available to ex-prisoners.
"These services are important in addressing offending behaviour, drug and alcohol addiction, missed educational and vocational opportunities, anger management, and self-management," said Mr Ahern.
"In addition, the Probation Service has an active role during the course of the prisoner's sentence in helping maintain links with family and community agencies, encouraging prisoners to address their offending behaviour and engaging prisoners in individual counselling and group counselling programmes."
The Prison Service is also developing an Integrated Sentence Management system (ISM) which involves prisoners taking a greater personal responsibility for their own development.
kdoyle@herald.ie
- Kevin Doyle, POLITICAL REPORTER
