Scheme sees drop in youth recidivism

A NEW scheme to manage young offenders has seen a near two-thirds drop in reoffending, a senior garda told a conference yesterday.

About 100 teenagers have participated in the scheme in Dublin’s north inner city. Since its introduction 18 months ago, the level of recidivism has dropped by 63 per cent, according to Chief Supt Pat Leahy.

The case management scheme involves assigning an individual garda to young recidivists who might have between 20 and 200 convictions. The garda then becomes involved with the parents, the schools and the justice system. The conference at the Mater Dei Institute in Dublin was organised by the Irish Commission for Justice and Social Affairs to discuss a Catholic Church document called Violence in Irish Society: Towards an Ecology of Peace.

RTÉ’s crime correspondent Paul Reynolds accused the church of failing to speak out in relation to the issue of gangland violence with a few notable exceptions including Fr Séamus Aherne in Finglas and Fr Joe Young in Limerick. He said the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin had failed to follow up his promise two years ago to host a summit to deal with major crime.

The auxiliary Bishop of Dublin Eamonn Walsh said the church should not be afraid to speak out despite the “elephant in the room” of its own history of violence in church-run institutions.

The church should not be “muzzled for all time”, he said.