Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 554: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if his attention has been drawn to the fact that research published since the 1950s has consistently found that good family support deters repeat offending; if his attention has further been drawn to the recent research funded by the EU Commission which emphasises the effectiveness of programmes supporting the families of drug dependent offenders; and his plans to increase supports to the families of offenders in view of such findings as part of an overall programme of investment to decrease recidivism. [23968/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The study to which I believe the Deputy refers in his question, Supporting Families of Drug-Dependent Offenders, examined the level of support that was available to families of drug dependent offenders in four European countries. The purpose of the study was to find out what services were available and what services were valued or desired by offenders and their families. This study did not, I understand, examine the impact that such services may have on recidivism.

The need to develop family supports and guidance for families of substance abusers was highlighted throughout the consultation process of the recently published mid-term review of the national drugs strategy. It was felt that the family needs to be recognised as a support and a resource, as well as having their support needs addressed.

In this regard, the steering group overseeing the review recommended that the following action be included in the national drugs strategy in order to implement the recommendations in the 2004 national advisory committee on drugs report, Role of Family Support Services in Drug Prevention, namely: to increase the capacity of services to respond through an appropriate level of resources and training for staff in services; to strengthen inter-agency links and networks by building knowledge of local community issues and attitudes thus improving communications; and to develop relevant monitoring and evaluation tools to measure effectiveness of services.

In addition, the mid-term review of the national strategy states that the national drugs strategy team should: actively encourage the local drugs task forces and regional drugs task forces to prioritise the provision of family services in their areas; and support family support networks in their work in the area of information provision and assistance to local family support groups. The agencies responsible for this action are the Health Service Executive, the Department of Social and Family Affairs and the national drug strategy team.

One of the core values of the Irish Prison Service is to endeavour to help prisoners, where possible and appropriate, to maintain relationships with their families. The National and Economic and Social Forum, NESF, report on the reintegration of prisoners — No. 22 of 2002 — makes a number of recommendations in regard to the provision of support to the families of prisoners and the Irish Prison Service continues to work in partnership with the probation and welfare service and other statutory, voluntary and community agencies and services to provide the best possible service and support to prisoners' families.

New external visiting facilities have been provided in recent years at Castlerea, Mountjoy, Cloverhill, and the Midlands prisons, as well as at St. Patrick's Institution. In addition, new internal visitor facilities have been provided at Castlerea, Cloverhill and the Midlands prisons. A new visitors' reception centre was opened in mid-2004 at Limerick Prison and another was opened in early 2005 at Portlaoise Prison. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul and the Religious Society of Friends jointly manage, on behalf of the Prison Service, the visitors' centres including crèche facilities, at Mountjoy, Cloverhill and the Midlands prisons. The Bedford Row project manages the external visitors' centre at Limerick Prison. The new visiting facilities at Portlaoise Prison are managed by the Irish Prison Service.

In addition to these developments, families are facilitated in participating in a range of programmes in areas such as addiction, specific offending behaviour programmes and pre-release programmes. The recommendation in the NESF report as regards a prisoner family support strategy will also inform the elaboration of positive sentence management.

My Department, through the probation and welfare service, provides funding to 69 voluntary bodies which provide a range of services to offenders in local communities, for example, pre-industrial training and education, offender management programmes, residential accommodation, drug and alcohol abuse treatment — intervention — awareness programmes, work with offenders in custody and post release, as well as providing a vital ingredient of a focused daytime programme for those found guilty of criminal offences by the courts and placed on supervision to the probation and welfare service.

A number of these projects, which work with drug dependent offenders, see it as being essential that parents and partners are active participants in the recovery programmes.