Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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110. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the measures being put in place to strengthen supervision of prolific repeat offenders after they have served their prison sentences. [39765/16]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Prolific offenders may be subject to a range of supervision measures. It is open to the Courts to impose a Post Release Supervision Order under the Sex offender Act 2001 or a Part Suspended Sentence Supervision Order under the Criminal Justice Act 2006. The supervision of offenders in the community post release is based on the outcome of a formal risk assessment process conducted by the Probation Service.

In an effort to strengthen the overall management of prolific offenders a Joint Agency Response to Crime (J-ARC) was developed. J-ARC is a strategic response to the management of prolific offenders. As part of this strategy a number of pilot initiatives have been developed to address the offenders' behaviour and reduce crime. J-ARC cases are managed on an inter-agency basis by An Garda Síochána, the Probation Service and the Irish Prison Service.

In November 2015 I formally launched J-ARC which four inter-agency initiatives in Dublin. This is now being extended to three additional areas; Dundalk, Waterford and Limerick.

On 22 September this year I launched the first Joint Strategy between the Department of Justice and Equality, An Garda Síochána, The Probation Service and the Irish Prison Service. The Joint Strategy, drawn up by the three agencies and with the full support of my Department recognises that in order to protect the public and reduce victimisation in Irish society, a joint approach to the management of offenders is essential. The Joint Strategy sets out a range of agreed key objectives and supporting actions for the enhanced management of offenders, to be advanced on an inter-agency basis in the period 2016-2018. It places particular emphasis on the management of high-volume offenders, sex offenders, perpetrators of domestic violence, combined with a strong focus on the rights and protection of crime victims.