Non-custodial sanctions do work

Conor Ryan’s article (Irish Examiner, Jan 4) on ‘Repeat Offenders’, “why criminals reoffend, and what can be done... to buck the trend” explores an important phenomenon across the world — why some people reoffend, having already been sanctioned by the courts.

Regrettably, by implying a context whereby imprisonment is presented as the ‘default’ punishment for those convicted of crime, the article is misleading in some significant parts.

The majority of sanctions imposed by the courts for criminal offending are non-custodial, including fines and suspended sentences, as well as probation supervision and community service. It is not correct to state that “more than half of people who were convicted of a crime in 2008 were guilty of another offence within three years”. It is correct that the December 2013 Central Statistics Office (CSO) study on reoffending by those who were released from prison in 2008 showed a reconviction level of 51% over the following three years. (Incidentally, that represented a drop of 4.3% in reoffending levels when compared to the 2007 group of released prisoners).