Offenders causing ‘havoc’ will be targeted, says Commissioner

A new inter-agency project in Dublin that targets “prolific offenders who are causing havoc” should be ready to begin being rolled out across the State next year, the Garda Commissioner, Nóirín O’Sullivan has said.

She was speaking at the official launch of a co-operative venture involving the Garda, the Prison Service and the Probation Service that currently targets 80 offenders in three different groups: burglars; repeat violent offenders, and a number of general offenders in the Shangan/Coultry area of Ballymun.

The programme targets people who are in prison, out on bail, on probation, or on temporary release, and involves a new Department of Justice and Equality operated e-hub to allow the three services to access to data on the individuals being targeted.

The programme seeks to aid the offenders in leaving their life of crime while ensuring that they are quickly jailed if they fail to co-operate. The Joint Agency Response to Crime (J-ARC) programme is similar to programmes already in operation in the UK and other jurisdictions.

The Minister for Justice and Equality, Frances Fitzgerald, said serial and serious offenders should be locked up but programmes targeting "prolific offenders" could help reduce crime and increase safety for all citizens.

She said that with burglary, “a heinous crime that can have a devastating effect”, it was known that approximately 75 per cent of all offences were committed by 25 per cent of all burglars. She said it was the first time that the three agencies had become focused in this way on recidivist prisoners.

There is a group of approximately 200 offenders in Dublin that needed to be focused on, she said. Eighty were currently in the programme.

Ms Fitzgerald said that when society spoke about programmes aimed at offenders it was sometimes thought that victims of crime were being ignored, but J-ARC was about reducing crime and making for less victims.

She said she would like to see increased “joined up thinking” across the public service and indeed within the voluntary sector too.

Ms O’Sullivan said she was very excited about the potential of the programme and that the early indications were very positive.

The director general of the prison service, Michael Donnellan, said the programme targets "out of control" offenders who believe they are beyond the reach of the system.

Probation service director Vivian Geiran said the programme targeted crimes such as burglary, that have a widespread ripple effect. If the incidence of such crimes was reduced, the impact on local communities is massive, he said.