More than 100 sex offenders are expected to be released from Irish prisons next year. Of these, almost half have participated in treatment programmes.
Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald said the Irish Prison Service had informed her that 104 such offenders were due to be released in 2016 and 50 had participated in individual or group based treatment and intervention with the psychology services. Five others have signalled their wish to undertake treatment before release.
Such treatment, known as the Building Better Lives programme, is carried out by clinical, counselling and forensic psychologists. The Minister said it aimed to develop “the earliest possible engagement with an increased number of sexual offenders as part of their sentence management”.
The programme is located at Arbour Hill prison in Dublin but would be extended to the Midlands prison in Portlaoise, where a significant number of sex offenders were jailed, she said.
Risk to communities
But Independent TD Denis Naughten said the fact that half of the sex offenders due to be released next year had not participated in any treatment programme "exposes the risk that communities face from those determined to reoffend once released from prison".
He said there was no treatment available at Castlerea prison in Co Roscommon, where sexual offenders were also detained. “This lack of engagement or availability of treatment shows that when these people are released from prison they need to be properly and closely monitored”.
The problem was “compounded by the fact that gardaí are then trying to monitor these offenders post-release with their hands tied behind their backs”.
Ms Fitzgerald released the figures to Mr Naughten in reply to a written parliamentary question.
He said there was an urgent need to strengthen provisions on the registration of offenders and their effective management.
“At present, once a sex offender registers their official address with any Garda station they can roam around the country for six days as long as they turn up at that official address on the seventh day.”
Anyone who wanted to avoid Garda attention could easily do so and still comply with the conditions of the sex offenders register, he said.
Monitoring
The Roscommon TD said the intention of the new Criminal Justice Bill, published in September, was to update the law in relation to sexual offences such as grooming.
It also aimed to strengthen post-release monitoring provisions and 50 electronic tagging devices had been acquired in anticipation of the changed law.
But the Minister had excluded provisions relating to the monitoring of sex offenders after release, he said. He introduced a Bill in 2013 to close off some “gaping loopholes” in current legislation and allow parents and those in authority in schools and clubs to inquire whether a person coming in contact with a child or vulnerable adult had been convicted of a sexual offence.
He said its provisions were to be included in the Government’s Criminal Justice Bill, but this had not happened and his Bill had been stalled in the justice committee for the past two years.
He claimed the legislation was not a high priority for the authorities. however, the Minister and the department have said a number of issues were legally very complex and had to resolved and it was better to split the legislation in two rather than delay the Bill altogether.
