More solutions needed for released prisoners, says Penal Reform Trust

The Irish Penal Reform Trust says a more structured system is needed when it comes to releasing prisoners into the community.

The Prison Services annual report, published yesterday, revealed that a significant proportion of people jailed in 2011 were repeat offenders - who had already served prison time in the same year.

Executive Director of the Penal Reform Trust Liam Herrick says temporary release is not an ideal solution when it comes to dealing with parole.

"Temporary release is not a good solution and we need to come up with other solutions. We need to be looking at more structured ways to release people safely into the community

"In the last year, the prison service and probation service have tired to release some prisoners on community service and that seems to be workign successfully.

"But we do need an urgent look at the parole system at the moment, which currently isn't functioning properly."