Only one in 20 young offenders in custody had the opportunity to avail of all alternative sanctions to prison before being sentenced, a Probation and Welfare Service report has found. While two in three of all offenders surveyed were granted supervision orders before their first prison sentence, fewer than one-third received other non-custodial penalties.
The report found that once an offender received a custodial sentence they were more likely to receive another. It also found that contact between offenders and the Probation and Welfare Service declined dramatically after the first custodial sentence.