FG outlines its alternative to failed detention centres

ACCORDING to the Public Accounts Committee, it costs from €300,000 to €500,000 to keep just one young offender in a detention centre for one year.

At one such centre — Finglas — the cost in 2004 of maintaining a detention place for a young person was €507,407.

And what do we get for all this financial outlay? When young offenders are released, we are almost guaranteed they will reoffend. The system is not working and Fine Gael wants to look at alternatives to it.