MORE THAN 80 per cent of teenagers in the State’s most secure unit for young offenders had reoffended within a year of their release, new figures show.
In addition, two out of three teenagers were in prison within six months of leaving the centre.
The figures are contained in new research by officials at Trinity House school in Lusk, Co Dublin, where the cost of detaining a young person in 2007 was €386,000 per year.
Youth justice experts say the high level of reoffending shows the lack of intensive aftercare available for young people leaving highly-structured environments such as correctional schools.
However, there is no obligation on health or justice authorities to provide aftercare to young people when they have formally left the justice system.
Trinity House houses up to 27 of the most seriously disturbed young offenders, typically aged in their mid-teens.
Most young people at the centre who are convicted of offences are committed for anything between two and four years. Reoffending rates for young people leaving Trinity House have been consistently high since officials started a tracking system six years ago.
In 2003 the rate was 50 per cent, rising to 96 per cent in 2004 and 79 per cent in 2005. The most recent year for which figures are available is 2006, when 80 per cent had reoffended within a year.
The figures over this period of time also show a majority of teenagers ending up either in prison, homeless or in another form of detention within a short period of leaving the youth justice system.
One of the main obstacles facing teenagers leaving the facility is adjusting to life which lacks the structure and rules of the centre, officials say.
A previous report into reoffending by Trinity House says: “They find it extremely difficult to adjust to very rigid rules and regulations.”
In a statement, the Irish Youth Justice Service – an arm of the Department of Justice – said a study was being carried out on recidivism for all young people in the justice system under the age of 18 years.
