KENNY WELCOMES PUBLICATION OF PAROLE BOARD ANNUAL REPORT

Posted on October 24, 2013 3:55 PM   |   Permanent Link   

Labour TD and member of the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Sean Kenny, has welcomed the publication of the Annual Report of the Parole Board for 2012.

"The Board's Chairman, Mr. John Costello and the members of the Board play an important role in evaluating prisoner suitability for release and this helps communities by ensuring that prisoners that are eligible for parole back into society, are able to be reintegrated in the best way possible. The Board also tries to encourage more prisoners to participate in the parole process and meets with groups of prisoners to explain the parole process. The Chairman hopes to visit every prison in the next 18 months doing this sort of work."

"The main way in which the Parole Board works is to give advice to the Minister on the administration of long term prison sentences greater than eight years. The Board advises the Minister of the prisoner's progress, how much the prisoner has engaged with various services available to them and how the remainder of the prison sentence is served. All recommendations are taken into account when making the final decision on the remainder of a prison sentence."

"The 2012 report tells us that the total caseload of the Board has increased from 205 in 2011 to 268 in 2012. The Board reports that they reviewed the cases of 91 prisoners in 2012, with the same number of recommendations made to the Minister and that the majority of those recommendations were accepted in full."

"I understand that there are plans in place to enact legislation to strengthen the Board and enable it to do an even better job than it is doing now. It is still to be finalised on exactly what role a statutory Parole Board will play and what powers it should have, and how it would fit into the criminal justice system as a whole."