Sir, - I have only recently come across your issue of April 4th as I was out of the country for a short period. I was unpleasantly surprised to read an account by your Security Correspondent, Jim Cusack, of a group called "The Life Sentence Review Board". I have no knowledge of such a board so I may very well be speaking out of turn, but I doubt it. It is scarcely possible that two years ago I should have been appointed by the then Minister for Justice as Chairperson of the Sentence Review Board without either her or her officials mentioning that there was a duplication of the process.
The Sentence Review Group, of which I speak, is a non statutory body first established in 1989 by Mr Ray Burke TD, Minister for Justice. Its establishment, and the guidelines governing it, were announced in the Dail on December 1st, 1989 its existence is therefore a matter which has now been in the public domain for more than six years. The primary purpose of the Group is to advise the Minister for Justice in relation to the administration of long term prison sentences. The question of release is solely a matter for the Minister for Justice and the recommendations which I make to the Minister on behalf of the group are just that i.e., recommendations. There is no power to release any prisoner. Such a power is almost always vested in government. We are not, in any sense, a parole board, which is established by statute with a different framework. A prisoner, who has completed seven years of a sentence of more than 10 years or one of life may, if he wishes, have his case reviewed by the group. Release, be it day release or open ended, is solely a matter for the Minister and my recommendations are chiefly suggestions on the ways in which the sentence might continue to be served and in particular ways in which the prisoner might be encouraged in the process of rehabilitation and self knowledge. It is accepted as a matter of fact that the Minister is the sole person who decides on questions of release and this is explained by me to each and every prisoner at the start of the interview. Furthermore, it is also explained that our recommendations may or may not be accepted, either in whole or in part.
The first chairperson of the group was Dr Ken Whitaker who, in the 1985 Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the Penal System which bears his name, recommended that there should be such a body - "Our recommendation for formal and regular reviews of long sentences is not intended to replace, or in any way interfere with, the Government's prerogative, exercised by the Minister for Justice, to remit sentences" (p 64). This was referred to by Mr Burke in his address to the Dail on December 1st, 1989. Contrary to the information which your correspondent states he received from "sources close to the Life Sentence Review Board" no decision is made in advance of review about any named prisoners and it is quite clear, from the above, that it would be impossible so to do. Nor does the group, without meeting any prisoner who has asked for his sentence to be reviewed, decide what its recommendations will be prior to that meeting. The latter are made on an on going basis in accordance with each prisoner's progress. To purport to name any prisoner about whom a decision has already been made is to do a serious disservice, not only to that prisoners privacy, but to the State's prerogative of mercy, to the people who serve on the group and, in particular, to Ken Whitaker without whose contribution this compassionate conduit of information from a prisoner to the Minister might never have been established. Mr Burke, with no more than justice, referred to my precedessor as being "rightly held in the highest regard as one of the most outstanding public servants that this country has ever produced".
Contrary to your correspondent's assertion, no person from the business community currently serves as a member of the group. They are drawn from those representative groupings set out in the guidelines, which do not have business as a category. The only name published is that of the chairperson. All persons serving life sentences, in fact, do serve them unless they are remitted by the government. Their release is "on licence" and they are liable to be recalled at any time, which is the universal practice, as I understand it.
If, however, for some reason of which I have not been made aware, there is in existence another body called "The Life Sentence Review Board" none of the above applies. I should have thought, though, that we would have crossed its path at some stage on our visits to various prisons each month. - Yours, etc.,
Chairperson,
Sentence Review Group, Dublin 2.