Ireland's approach to using community sanctions for criminals is "embarrassing", outdated and in need of a major overhaul, a Government-commissioned report has concluded.
The report, by former head of the Probation and Welfare Service Seán Lowry, also contains criticisms of the judiciary. It says judges are referring too many low-risk offenders to the probation service, putting it under strain and deflecting probation officers away from dealing with higher-risk criminals.
Mr Lowry's report has pointed to weaknesses in the Irish approach to the rehabilitation of violent criminals, and in monitoring sex offenders.
While violent crime is addressed by a "small number" of programmes in Ireland, a "wider strategy" is needed to combat the use of violence, particularly by young people.
He says Ireland is monitoring far fewer released sex offenders compared with other jurisdictions.
The unpublished report has been obtained by The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act.
Mr Lowry pointed to Canada as an example of best practice in the treatment of sex offenders.
In two regions in Canada - Manitoba and British Columbia - more than 1,000 sex offenders are being supervised in the community in a population of 5.3 million. In Ireland only 150 sex offenders are being supervised in a population of almost 4.5 million.
In Manitoba, a public notification committee decides whether full or partial information about a sex offender is disclosed to the community.
The report notes the number of hours involved in community sanctions for all crime types here is far higher than in other jurisdictions - 150 hours in Ireland compared with 60 in Scandinavia. This is leading to poor completion rates here.
It has recommended a reduction in hours in favour of "composite" orders which could include counselling for criminals along with periods of tagging and community work.
It says the system in Finland and Norway has proven so successful that prison terms below six and eight months have either been abolished or are converted to other forms of rehabilitative punishment. If the same approach was adapted here, committals to prison of sentenced criminals would fall by about two-thirds, from 5,800 to 1,800.
Some 4,000 of the 5,800 sentenced criminals committed to prison in 2006 were serving sentences of eight months or less.
A move towards composite orders should be developed in consultation with the judiciary, the report says.
Mr Lowry was asked in 2006 by then minister for justice Michael McDowell to review Ireland's approach to community sanctions against international best practice.
Mr Lowry studied practices in 30 countries. He visited a number of jurisdictions including the US, Canada, New Zealand, Finland and Denmark. In his report, he concludes generally of community sanctions that "the practice in this country has not kept up with developments" in other jurisdictions.
"It is embarrassing in interaction with the international community to have to reveal that we work under an outdated piece of British legislation which has long since been replaced in Britain."
He points to the US as an example of how low-risk offenders could be more effectively managed. In New York, low-risk offenders complete computerised questionnaires at call centres. It is only when matters for concern are identified in the criminals' answers that probation workers become actively involved in their case.
