Written answers

Tuesday, 1 February 2005

Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform

Crime levels

8:00 pm

Photo of Aengus Ó SnodaighAengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 282: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the present rate of re-offending; and his plans to reduce it during the lifetime of the 29th Dáil. [2821/05]

Photo of Michael McDowellMichael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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While accurate figures relating to rates of recidivism in the prisoner population are not yet available, the computerisation of prisoner records from 2001 will in future provide a more detailed view of a prisoner's past committal history. The director general of the prison service recently commissioned a major three year research project on this topic which, it is expected, will present an accurate picture of recidivism which, in turn, will assist and shape the way we manage prison sentences in the future. The findings of this research are expected in early 2007.

The prison service provides a range of rehabilitative programmes which have the dual purpose of providing prisoners with purposeful activity while serving their sentences and encouraging and equipping them to lead non-offending lives on release. While the probation service does not maintain statistics on re-offending, in preparing pre-sanction reports for the courts, probation and welfare officers undertake an assessment of the risk posed to the public by an offender. This involves an assessment of the likelihood that the offender will re-offend.

As part of a policy of improving their service to the courts and in line with other probation and correctional services throughout the world, probation officers in Ireland will in future use an assessment tool known as the "level of service inventory — revised" or LSI-R to help them make more accurate assessments of the likelihood that an offender will re-offend. The LSI-R will also form an important part of assessments and reviews undertaken as part of any subsequent supervision of offenders. The LSI-R has been developed from an extensive body of international research and has been shown to predict the likelihood of adult recidivism in criminal jurisdictions throughout the world.

The LSI-R, in effect, structures the assessment undertaken by probation officers and ensures that all offenders are assessed in regard to key potential areas of risk. An important element in the process is the assessment of the offender's attitudes and values and those held by others with whom they may come into contact. The evidence shows that offenders who hold anti-social or criminal attitudes and who associate with like minded friends, family members or work colleagues are at particular risk of re-offending. The LSI-R, therefore, places heavy emphasis on the assessment of attitudes.

Finally, the Garda juvenile diversion programme was introduced in 1963 to provide an opportunity to divert juvenile offenders from criminal activity. The programme provides that if certain criteria are met an offender under 18 years may be cautioned as an alternative to prosecution. The most recent figures available for the programme are for 2003. In that year, the national juvenile office received 19,915 referrals relating to 17,043 individual children. Since some children were referred more than once, the number of referrals is greater than the number of individuals referred.

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