Report: Greater use of community service could reduce re-offending

UCD Professor of Criminology, Ian O’Donnell: “The evidence is very strong that for offences that attract short sentences a period of community service is more effective than a brief term of incarceration and it is less expensive to administrate"

Greater use of community service or suspended sentences could reduce the rate of prisoners re-offending or returning to prison, research has found.

A new report by Professor of Criminology, Ian O’Donnell, at UCD, has examined factors that influence re-offending, or recidivism rates among prisoners.