Rehabilitating prisoners has inherent risk of them absconding

On any given day, about 200 prisoners are let out of Irish prisons on some form of temporary release. The majority do not abscond when released, with or without escorts, for training courses, work programmes, family events or even swimming or driving lessons.

When they do, they invariably hit the headlines. The convicted heroin dealer, Regina Felloni, is the latest high-profile prisoner whose brief spell missing from Dublin's Mountjoy prison this week provoked Opposition calls for tighter security during such outings.

The Labour Party TD, Ms Roisin Shortall, whose constituency covers Finglas where Felloni's notorious criminal family once lived, says the public would have been astonished to learn that such a prisoner was subject to security so lax that she was able to run away.

The governor of Mountjoy prison, Mr John Lonergan, counters that a prison system which takes no risks to rehabilitate prisoners does no favours to either prisoner or society.

This view is endorsed by the Irish Penal Reform Trust. "All we can do is manage risk and minimise risk. It's impossible to eliminate it completely," says its director, Dr Ian O'Donnell.

Felloni (24), a low-security prisoner approaching the end of her six-year and nine-month sentence, was back in custody within hours of fleeing.

She had evaded her escort after she asked to use the lavatory in a fast-food restaurant on her way back from a State-funded driving lesson. She was found slumped near the Papal Cross in the Phoenix Park suffering the effects of drug excess.

Her case, as well as the recent absconding by double killer John Gallagher from the Central Mental Hospital in Dublin, highlights the dilemma inherent in efforts to reintegrate offenders into society prior to their final release.

"How do you actually operationalise reintegration without bringing people outside the prison and building them up to a stage where they can go out on their own?" asks Mr Lonergan.

"It's all about building trust with the prisoner and you can't do that within the confines of the prison. There has to be an acceptance of the risk involved in this both politically and publicly. If the Irish public says prison has to be rehabilitative, what does that mean?"

Mr Lonergan said in the case of a young person such as Felloni, the State, through the Prison Service, "has an obligation to do what is best to give people an alternative to crime and in doing that we have to try different things to motivate people and give them outlets and skills and involved in that is an element of risk, but there's no physical risk from her.

"It's better to do that than to discharge her coldly out into the streets where she has no alternative but to resume where she left off drug taking and dealing. When she's discharged, the prison service can say: `we did our best for you to help you'. "

The number of prisoners on temporary release has decreased by more than 50 per cent in the past four years. Of 3,228 prisoners in custody on July 12th, 219 were on temporary release. This compares with 506 prisoners on temporary release out of a total of 2,730 prisoners on July 10th, 1996.

This decrease is largely due to the prison building programme which has meant the "revolving door" is used less often to relieve pressure on space.

"Because of the overcrowding, people were released on temporary release that in the normal course no one could recommend. It was because we had no choice," says Mr Lonergan.

The Irish Penal Reform trust says the past use of temporary release as a safety valve to relieve chronic overcrowding brought it into disrepute. "With the increase in prison space, it's been possible to plan temporary release better," says Dr O'Donnell.

However, he is critical of how the system of early release for prisoners serving sentences for serious crimes is structured. Currently, prisoners serving long sentences apply to the Sentence Review Group after seven years for a review of the conditions of their sentences, including the possibility of early release. The group then makes recommendations to the Minister.

Dr O'Donnell wants to see a statutory parole board with transparent criteria to give prisoners fixed goals to work towards. "We want to see this in the context of the introduction of sentence planning for all prisoners, so that a person's time in custody can be structured and constructive."

Victim Support says its biggest concern about temporary or early release is that victims should be notified if they wish to be as a common courtesy.

"This would prevent a situation where in one case a girl was out with her mother on a Sunday afternoon and the man who raped her was walking down the street," says its chief executive, Ms Lillian McGovern.

Ms McGovern says the recent appointment of a victims' liaison officer within the Prisons Service has helped victims to be better informed. "It's very much a case of people saying: `look, I don't mind someone being out on temporary release but at least I was told'. "