Parole Board Annual Report for 2013 Published

11th September 2014

The Minister for Justice has published the Annual Report for 2013 of the Parole Board.

The report details the number of cases reviewed; the number of prison interviews held; the number of recommendations made to the Minister that were accepted/rejected, and more.

Of 68 prisoner cases referred to the Board for review during 2013, 47 prisoners accepted the invitation to participate, and 13 declined with 8 invitations to participate were not determined.

Recommendations were sent to the Minister for Justice and Equality in 95 of the 96 cases reviewed. The recommendations in 75 cases were accepted in full by the Minister; 9 cases were accepted conditionally or in part. At the end of the year there were 11 decisions still pending.

IPRT Position:

In October 2012, IPRT published the IPRT Position Paper 9: Reform of Remission, Temporary Release and Parolewhich called on a number of reforms, including: for an independent statutory Parole Board to be established and to take over decision-making on the release of life-sentenced and long-sentenced prisoners. Our recommendations included:

• removing the role of the Minister in decision-making on release of long-term prisoners;

• establishment of a transparent, structured system of release;

• extending the remit of the Parole Board to include early release applications of those sentenced 5-8 years;

• setting time limits for when parole hearings must take place;

• and giving a right to legal representation before the Parole Board.

• IPRT Press Release: http://www.iprt.ie/contents/2657
• Dept. of Justice: http://justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/PR14000232
• IPRT Position Paper: Reform of Remission, Temporary Release and Parole
• Report: http://justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/PB14000230