Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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132. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the resources allocated to the community return programme; the number of prisoners who applied to and who were released, respectively, under the scheme during each year since it was established. [9906/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Community Return Programme is an incentivised early release scheme co-managed by the Irish Prison Service and the Probation Service. It commenced in October 2011 and is now operational in every county and from every prison in the State. The Programme has been supported by the reallocation of resources and key personnel from within both services.

The Programme targets well behaved prisoners serving sentences of between 1 and 8 years imprisonment who are making genuine efforts to desist from reoffending. Prisoners serving sentences of less than one year are ineligible for Community Return and may instead be considered for release under the Community Support Scheme. Persons serving sentences of over 8 years generally fall within the Parole Board process. The legislative basis for making decisions on temporary release is fully set out in the Criminal Justice Act 1960, as amended by the Criminal Justice (Temporary Release of Prisoners) Act 2003. Each application is considered on its individual merits and in line with the legislative provisions.

A formal assessment for Community Return is undertaken when a recommendation to this effect is made following a Prisoner Review Meeting. These meetings are chaired by the Prison Governor and other attendees include representatives from the Probation Service, Psychology, Chaplaincy, Education, addiction services, other senior prison officials and a representative from Prison Service Headquarters.

The total number of releases on to the scheme, broken down by prison and covering the period from October 2011 until the end of 2016, are set out in the following table.

There were an additional 415 persons who did not progress on to the scheme having been referred for assessment. The reasons for non-progression are varied and include issues such as a lack of suitable accommodation, risk of reoffending, subsequent breach of prison discipline and previous non compliance with Probation Orders.