Dáil debates

Tuesday, 8 May 2012

2:00 pm

Photo of Jonathan O'BrienJonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 71: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if he plans to expand the functions of and adequately resource the Probation Service in view of proposed early release schemes in the Irish Prison Service strategic plan. [22993/12]

Photo of Alan ShatterAlan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Irish Prison Service strategic plan contains a number of key objectives for the next three years, one of which includes the expansion of a pilot community return project which commenced last October in line with the recommendations of the Thornton Hall project review group. This community return programme is an incentivised scheme run in conjunction with the probation service which provides for earned temporary release under which offenders who pose no threat to the community are offered early temporary release in return for supervised community service. I can assure the Deputy that the probation service has sufficient resources available it to support the scheme at present. It has been able to manage and resource the scheme since its commencement last October and I am fully committed to ensuring this will continue. As it is, the probation service has responsibility for the supervision and management of community service orders in accordance with the Criminal Justice (Community Service) Act 1983, as amended by the Criminal Justice (Community Service) (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 2011. This work, inter alia, involves providing assessment reports to the courts and managing the completion of the orders by offenders.

A value for money audit of the community service scheme which was carried out in 2007 to 2008 and published in October 2009, found that there was capacity from within existing resources to provide supervision services to three times as many offenders as were under their supervision at the time of the audit. I might also add that the service has been working to prioritise its workload and has been allocating resources to maximise its efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of services including community sanctions, as an effective alternative to custody. This also includes working with high risk sex offenders and young people and those for whom the service has a legislative mandate.

I am pleased to say that sanction was recently obtained to fill the vacant director post in the probation service which will be advertised in the coming weeks. The service will continue to have my full support in making greater use of community service to the benefit of prisoners and communities as an alternative to imprisonment.

Photo of Jonathan O'BrienJonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for his reply and welcome the scheme which, as he said, comes on foot of the pilot project. I think only four individuals ended up returning to prison under the pilot project, yet some of the commentary surrounding the recent announcement was unfortunate. I do not know if it was something that fell through the cracks but some hysteria was created around it, which was completely unwarranted. The clarification provided during the Topical Issues debate allayed many of the fears people had.

When I asked the Minister last year about the probation services, he said he had secured sanction from the Department of Finance to hire eight additional probation officers. Are those additional staff now in place and, if not, when does the Minister expect them to be in place?

The Minister said he is satisfied the probation service has the resources and staffing to deal with the scheme, but will he continue to review it? If so, how often will those reviews take place?

Photo of Alan ShatterAlan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I can personally assure the Deputy that we will keep the staffing position under continual review. I do not have an immediate answer as to whether the ten posts have been filled. I will be happy to communicate with the Deputy in that regard.

I thank the Deputy for his comments on the business strategy we have put in place. It will be very important as we go forward over the next three years. This particular proposal was one half of the strategy. The House has previously discussed the pilot programme that was taking place and while we will have a full report following the review, the programme has proved to be successful. We have now exceeded 85 on the programme and I am advised that more than 130 have been assessed as appropriate for it. Some have completed the programme in the intervening period, so the figure is not 130 at the one time.

The programme is continuing. As was stated when we announced it, it was anticipated that at any one time there would be no more than 150 on the programme, and in any one year there would be no more than 400. Whether there are 400 participants does not simply depend on the capacity of the probation service to supervise the numbers, which I am advised should not be a difficulty, but also on whether appropriate prisoners are available to participate in the programme.

There was a lot of hysteria attached to the announcement. It was portrayed in some tabloid papers as if we were about to release 1,200 prisoners into the community, as opposed to approximately 1,200 over a three-year period. All of them would have to have served a minimum of 50% of their sentences before qualifying to be assessed for the purpose of the programme.

I see the programme going forward and as I told Deputy Calleary last week, when the formal review of the pilot is complete I will happily share that information with the Deputies.

Photo of Jonathan O'BrienJonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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One of the criteria within the strategy for earning temporary release concerned education and training. What type of resources will be needed to ensure that prisoners can avail of additional education and training in order to earn temporary release? Will the Department be examining that matter over a three-year period or will it be done annually?

Photo of Alan ShatterAlan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The strategy was only announced last week and we are now in the implementation phase. The pilot projects are such that in the context of community release additional conditions can be attached. For example, they may involve an individual having to attend meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous or some other group dealing with drug issues.

As the strategy details, we hope to expand and improve the overall educational facilities within our prison service. That is now part of the work that is being put in place with regard to implementing the strategy over the three-year period.