More than 75 new probation officers should be recruited to the Probation and Welfare Service, according to an expert report presented to the Minister for Justice.
"The service is being starved of resources and treated as an adjunct to the prison service," the head of the expert group, Mr Brian McCarthy, chairman of Fexco, said last night.
The report found that staffing levels had not kept pace with the increasing workload of the service. In just over a decade the number of court reports prepared by the service had more than doubled, from 2,788 in 1985 to 6,071 in 1996. Two years ago 4,500 people were being supervised by the service on community court orders, compared to 2,532 in 1985. "In other countries the probation service is much better funded and highly regarded by people and governments," Mr McCarthy said. "But in Ireland it is seen that people `get off' on probation. People think you get off very lightly. There is an urgent need to inform the public what exactly a community service order is." The report recommends a public relations strategy for the service.
The probation and welfare branch of IMPACT welcomed the report's recommendations. Its spokesman, Mr Patrick O'Dea, said it was in the Government's interests to implement them.
Mr Peter Nolan, IMPACT's assistant general secretary, said the review group was "absolutely right to recommend an increase in probation staff as an effective way of tackling crime and rehabilitating offenders". In a survey of young offenders in two prisons last February it was found that one in three had been sentenced to prison for a first conviction, never having had a probation service order.
The report also criticises the lack of information technology to help track people going through the system. The expert group was asked to examine the Probation and Welfare Service almost a year ago, and is due to complete its second report next May.
