Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality

Penal Reform: Discussion with User Voice

2:40 pm

Mr. Mark Johnson:

Not on a personal level. The whole concept is based on my belief that everyone can change if they have the capacity to be honest with themselves. Politically, we are not working with sex offenders. That is a political and systemic issue rather than a lack of willingness. We work in sex offender prisons and a large proportion of the English system contains sex offenders who would be difficult to recognise as such. Outside in the community, however, there is a much greater aversion to that.