Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter and his very constructive comments. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important issue which has been a topic of some discussion for a number of days.

As the Deputy is aware, on Monday last I launched the new three year strategic plan for the Irish Prison Service. The plan contains a new mission statement and vision for the service. That mission is to "provide safe and secure custody, dignity of care and rehabilitation to prisoners for safer communities". The plan also contains a vision for the service of "a safer community through excellence in a prison service built on respect for human dignity". The plan has the potential to deliver a safer and more secure environment for prisoners and staff and enhance prisoner rehabilitation through greater involvement in sentence planning and structured activities. It can also be a catalyst for bringing about cultural change in prisons.

The plan's key objectives are: increasing public safety by maintaining safe and secure custody for all those committed by the courts and reducing reoffending and improving prisoner rehabilitation through the development of a multi-agency approach to offending; ensuring Ireland's compliance with domestic and international human rights obligations and best practice; delivering reform and implementing change in accordance with the public service agreement and the integrated reform plan for the justice and equality sector. The plan includes several concrete and practical, if ambitious, targets for the next three years. Many of these objectives give effect to commitments given in the programme for Government and include the elimination of slopping out across the prison estate; the replacement of outdated accommodation and facilities in Mountjoy, Cork and Limerick prisons; ending the detention of juveniles at St. Patrick's Institution; the creation of drug-free units; and the enhancement of current programmes, including accredited education and vocational training for prisoners.

The Irish Prison Service is setting out to re-engineer the prison system to give further effect to the principles of normalisation, progression and reintegration. This is done through work training and education but also through the work of the medical, dental and other health care services, the psychology service and the chaplaincy, not forgetting the inputs from the Probation Service and voluntary and community organisations.

On many occasions in this House I have been asked about prison overcrowding. Chronic overcrowding and all the problems that come with it are the result of the failure of previous Governments to provide an appropriate number of places across the prison estate. This is an issue the current Administration is determined to address. Already, after only 14 months in government, arrangements have been put in place for the provision of a 300 space wing at the Midlands Prison which is likely to open in September or early October. Plans are under way for the provision of a new prison in Cork. The capital plan funding allocation for the Irish Prison Service building programme for 2012 also provides for the continuation of the refurbishment and in-cell sanitation project at Mountjoy Prison.

A pilot community return project commenced in October last in line with the recommendations of the Thornton Hall project review group. The project which is run by the Probation Service and the Irish Prison Service provides for earned early temporary release to be offered to offenders who pose no threat to society in return for supervised community service. The project has engaged 85 prisoners and proved to be very successful. It is now planned to roll it out nationally. In reply to the specific query raised by the Deputy, I am in a position to state a review will be carried out when the project is complete. I will be happy to share the information from that review with the Deputy in the format he suggested, namely, via a briefing to the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality. To date, four of the 85 prisoners involved in the project have been returned to prison for not complying with the conditions laid down. The perception is that the project is working successfully. However, a full review must be carried out of its workings upon completion. Under the new proposal, at any one time a maximum of 150 prisoners will be engaged with the scheme. In the three year lifetime of the plan, up to 1,200 prisoners will participate. It will not be the case, as has been suggested in some of the more interesting media reports, that during this period there will be 1,200 prisoners on such structured release.

The potential benefits of the programme are obvious. Instead of releasing large numbers of prisoners on temporary release, without any assessment, in an unstructured manner, we will have a structured programme involving carefully selected and motivated prisoners. The community return programme is restricted to suitably assessed prisoners who are serving sentences of more than one and less than eight years and who have served at least 50% of their sentences. The overriding consideration in the operation of the programme is that of public safety.

The following factors are taken into account in considering the suitability of a prisoner for temporary release to participate in the project: the nature and gravity of the offence to which the sentence being served relates; the sentence concerned and any recommendations made by the court in respect of the sentence imposed; the potential threat to the safety and security of the public should the person be released; the person's previous criminal record; the risk of the person failing to comply with any of the conditions of temporary release; the extent of the prisoner's engagement with therapeutic services while in custody; and conduct while in custody.

It has been the practice of previous Governments to release prisoners before their full term of imprisonment has been completed. The community return project provides a structure and an assessment process in respect of specific objectives to be achieved in connection with such releases. Prison must not be merely a warehouse to contain convicted offenders for a period of time before releasing them back into the community to reoffend. Our rates of recidivism are too high and we must take action to reduce them. We must innovate and do things differently in order to reduce the unacceptable level of recidivism and reoffending. By doing this we will provide greater protection from criminality for the community in general.

I again thank the Deputy giving me the opportunity to address this matter in the House. On the specific issue he raised in respect of the victims of crime, he will be aware of the commitment in the programme for Government regarding the introduction of a Bill to detail in law with the protections available to such victims. Developments within the European Union may result in a victims' of crime measure that will apply across all of the member states. If such a measure is directly applicable, we will not be obliged to publish our own legislation. It is likely that legislation to go hand in hand with this measure will be produced and that it will address issues relating to victims in the context of prescribing their rights and entitlements in respect of the information which should be made available to them.

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