A pilot project which has led to a large drop in re-offending by prisoners after their release will be extended to the State's 17 jails. Prisoners involved in the social inclusion project were over 10 times less likely to re-offend after release than the rest of the prison population, according to figures published yesterday.
Some 367 male and female inmates in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, took part in the three-year Connect project, which was aimed at increasing the employability of offenders.
The recidivism rate of those released is 5 per cent, compared with an overall rate of 70 per cent among other prisoners. Participants included people serving sentences for crimes such as armed robbery, murder and theft.
The project focused on preparing prisoners in Mountjoy's men's and women's prisons and their training unit to return to the community and join the labour market. Prison officers acted as mentors to the prisoners to aid rehabilitation through training programmes and new structures.
The National Training and Development Institute, which is part of the Rehab Group, ran the project with the Department of Justice.
Ms Paula Lawlor, the project manager, said a majority of the participants had been habitual offenders, some with more than 14 convictions. Out of 140 participants released to date, only eight had returned to prison. This was "a dramatic transformation for habitual offenders".
Some 50 of the ex-prisoners who have kept in contact with the project team are in full-time employment in areas including retailing, recycling, contract cleaning, panel-beating and metalwork. At least 10 are in full-time training.
One ex-prisoner is setting up his own metalwork business and another has been promoted to a management job with a Dublin company, said Ms Lawlor. "The results of the project are quite extraordinary when you bear in mind that we have mainly been dealing with recidivists, many of whom left school at the age of 15, who had been in and out of prison for years and who had never previously been in gainful employment."
The project will be extended to the State's 17 jails as part of a £46 million investment programme in work and training for prisoners until 2006.