SURVEY REVEALS LITTLE USE OF JAIL ALTERNATIVES

Only one in 20 young offenders in custody had the opportunity to avail
of all alternative sanctions to prison before being sentenced, a
Probation and Welfare Service report has found.

While two in three of all offenders surveyed were granted supervision
orders before their first prison sentence, less than one-third
received other non-custodial penalties.

A total of 150 young males between 16 and 21 in the State's two youth
detention centres, St Patrick's Institution and Shanganagh Castle,
were surveyed for the report, Young Of-fenders in Penal Custody. It
highlights a lack of variety in sentencing and suggests that
alternatives to prison could be more fully explored before sentences
are handed down.

One of the most surprising findings was the low use of community
service orders, made in respect of only 11.6 per cent of cases. Other
alternatives to prison such as obliging drug offenders to attend
treatment programmes were not used at all.

The report found that once an offender received a custodial sentence
he was more likely to receive another. Only 28 per cent of those who
received more than one sentence were granted a supervision order
between sentences.

The report also found that contact between offenders and the Probation
and Welfare Service declined dramatically after the first custodial
sentence. Almost half of those in custody for more than one period had
no contact with the service between their first and current sentenced
periods.

It concluded that greater access to community-based services was
needed "if the negative spiral leading to further incarceration is to
be interrupted".

More than half the respondents come from eight Dublin postal
districts: 1, 7, 8, 11, 15, 17, 22 and 24. Of the other counties,
Louth topped the list with 13 offenders, eight more than the next,
Meath.

More than 50 per cent were serving sentences for property-related
offences, 28 per cent for offences against the person, 15.3 per cent
for car theft, and 6 per cent for possession of drugs for supply.

The last two "were almost exclusively Dublin phenomena", the report
said. In contrast, almost twice as many offenders from outside Dublin
as from within were serving sentences primarily in respect of offences
against the person.

The report is timely, with the Children Bill, 1999, currently before
the Oireachtas. The Bill proposes alternatives to prison for young
offenders including day care orders, "suitable person" or mentor
orders, where the offender has to account to a designated person, and
restriction-of-movement orders.