Killers and drug offenders freed on temporary release

Prisoners let out as overcrowding issue grows

TWO people convicted of homicide, a sex offender, and dozens of criminals guilty of theft or drug crime were among those given temporary release from prison in recent months.

The Irish Prison Service provided a detailed breakdown of the 387 people that were released from jail on New Year’s Eve as they have tried to deal with growing levels of overcrowding.

An analysis of the data has shown that among those temporarily released were two men guilty of homicide offences, who were both serving sentences of between five and 10 years in Castlerea Prison in Co. Roscommon.

The prison service also granted freedom to a single sex offender serving a short sentence of between three and six months in the Midlands Prison in Laois.

The largest category of prisoners granted release from their sentences were those guilty of controlled drug offences, where 100 offenders were set free with conditions.

There were also 74 people serving time for theft and related offences, 52 convicted of road and traffic offences, and 36 sent to jail for fraud, deception, or related offences.

In more serious categories of crime, there was temporary release (TR) for one individual from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin serving a three-to-five-year term for kidnapping or related offences.

There were also 30 individuals granted TR after being found guilty of attempts or threats to murder, assaults, and harassment or related offences.

Others on temporary release included 21 prisoners in jail for dangerous or negligent acts; eight involved in robbery, extortion, or hijacking; seven convicted of weapons or explosives offences and six criminals imprisoned for offences against government, justice procedures, or for the organisation of crime. Of the 387 people on temporary release on New Year’s Eve, the largest number, 99 in total, were serving sentences of between one and two years.

There were also 24 people who had been given prison terms of between five and 10 years, but no prisoners with sentences longer than that.

The Irish Prison Service (IPS) figures also showed that 17 of the TR inmates were jailed for less than three months, with 83 in jail for sentences of between three and six months.

A large majority of those on temporary release were men, with 321 male prisoners compared to 66 women.

However, men vastly outnumber women in the prison system by a rate of around 20-to-1 based on the latest official figures from the IPS.

The data also revealed the jails with the highest rates of TR were Mountjoy with 117 and Cork Prison with 52. There were also three men from high-security Portlaoise Prison, 49 from the women’s Dóchas Centre in Dublin, and 17 from Limerick’s female prison.

No prisoners from Arbour Hill, which is used to house most of the country’s most serious sex offenders, were on temporary release and it is almost never granted to such prisoners.

A spokesman for the IPS said they had to accept all prisoners committed by the courts and had no control over numbers arriving to jail on a day-to-day basis.

‘[Last Monday, there were] 4,854 in custody across the prison estate or 108% of the overall capacity. The total bed capacity of the Prison Service is 4,514,’ the spokesman said.

Temporary release was one of the ways in which capacity was managed – with each prisoner being considered on a case-by-case basis and with ‘the safety of the public paramount’ in any decision that was made.

Among the factors considered ahead of release were the nature of the crime, the individual’s previous criminal record, the potential threat the person posed, and their likelihood of reoffending.

‘Last Monday we were at 108% of overall capacity’