Ms Anne Costello:

Generally, it is the weakest who are re-imprisoned like that. The Probation Service is now very interested in the fact that if a woman comes seeking support it can identify Barnardos as a possible community option. Before that they could not say with any degree of certainty that a woman would not reoffend, because there were no supports in the community. Now, it is a little bit more hopeful for women, but we need the funding to extend the service to all the men in prison as well.