Nearly a third of Laois offenders given second chance broke the law again in same year

New figures show that there is a 29% rate of reoffending among Laois people who break the law but are not given a conviction but instead given a second chance through probation over a 12 month period.

The finding is contained new figures published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) which provides annual estimates of the re-offending rates for probationers who received probation orders up to and including 2018. 

The Probation of Offenders Act 1907 provides the courts with a way of dealing with first-time offenders and offenders who are unlikely to be in trouble again. It lets the courts give these offenders a type of official warning without imposing a sentence on them. A probation order requires you to be of good behaviour.

However, the CSO has found that not all of those in Laois are making the most of the opportunity judges give them. While 68 people did not reoffend within the year, 27 did end up in trouble with the law again. That gave a reoffending rate of 29%.

The rate for Laois is just above the national and Midland average revealed by the CSO where 85 out of the 350 people broke the law again.  MORE BELOW GRAPHIC.

The one-year probation re-offending rate for 2018 (28%). Regionally, the highest level of re-offending (34%) involved probationers from the Mid-West (Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary) and South-West (Cork and Kerry) regions.

In the Dublin region, where the highest number of probationers lived (1,535 of 4,999), 28% of probationers re-offended within a year.

The highest number of probation orders were issued in 2018 to individuals who committed offences related to Theft & Related offences (936 persons). This category also contained the joint highest one-year re-offending rate (including Public Order Related offences), with 38% of these individuals re-offending.

Commenting nationally, Felix Coleman, Statistician in the Crime and Criminal Justice Division, said re-offending rates
Overall, probation re-offending estimates indicate a decline in re-offending by probationers between 2016 and 2018.

He said that, in addition, the re-offending rate for 2018 (28%) was the joint lowest one-year re-offending rate measured since 2008 when the first estimates of probation re-offending were calculated.

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He said that an overall reduction in re-offending has been mainly due to a reduction in the re-offending of individuals who received probation for offences relating to assault or harassment. In this group 17% of probationers re-offended in 2018 compared with 23% in 2017.

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"What the analysis also shows is that the re-offence types that probationers were linked to were now less likely to be road or traffic (RTIs)-related. Around 18% of individuals that re-offended in 2018 did so in offences related to RTIs compared with 23% in 2017.