Ms Joyce Loughnan:

We are working in partnership with St. Vincent de Paul and PACE to plan a strategy for a pilot for a small cohort of those 50 women, to look at how we can best integrate a service for them that will enable them when leaving prison to link into the right services, such as housing and family services, and that identify their individual needs. The best way to do it is on a case by case basis, where the needs and wants of each person for her life are identified and that is followed through with an implementation plan that will bring the woman to where she wants to be so she does not fall into homeless services without thinking about what is happening next. There would be a plan for each individual but it must be done on a case by case basis that must recognise that not everyone will take the same route. The big issue is having the right accommodation, if that is a requirement, or if that support is available to the family and the individual. We must look at how we can prevent this churning of people coming into prison and then coming into homeless services, offending and re-entering prison.