Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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49. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if her Department monitors the effectiveness of community service in place of incarceration of prisoners; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29831/16]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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To date three Recidivism Studies involving the Probation Service have been carried out by the Central Statistics Office and are available on www.cso.ie. Each is a detailed study of recidivism among offenders placed under Probation Supervision or given Community Service as an alternative to a custodial sentence.

The third study, which was published in December 2015, is a detailed study of recidivism among offenders placed under Probation Service supervision in 2009, including those on Community Service Orders. This study demonstrates that overall almost 63% of offenders did not re-offend within a 3 year period of being placed under the supervision of the Probation Service. It further showed that 67.5% of offenders on Community Service Orders did not re-offend within a 3 year period. This can be compared with the previous 2008 cohort figure of 61.6% of offenders on Community Service Orders not re-offending within a 3 year period.

The above figures indicate a recidivism rate of 32.5% for those persons given a Community Service Order. While a direct comparison cannot be made the recidivism rate for those leaving prison in the same year was 47.5%.

The recidivism levels for both those who were released from prison in 2009 and those who were supervised by the Probation Service had fallen by 3.5% and 3.7% respectively. I am confident that the joint initiatives being undertaken within the criminal justice sector, including the Community Return and Community Support Schemes, will result in lower recidivism levels being reported in the prison cohort in future. I am very pleased with the continued improvement in offending reduction among those on probation supervision.