Irish Penal Reform Trust

Youth Justice: 18-24s

Young adults are more responsive to rehabilitative measures than older adults – but the wrong interventions can limit opportunities and deepen offending behaviour. Alternative sentencing and policy approaches are needed to reduce the offending rate among young adults.

IPRT response at webinar: Judicial Discretion and the Justice & Welfare Dichotomy

23rd May 2022

IPRT Executive Director Saoirse Brady was a panel respondent at this important Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and the Children’s Rights Alliance webinar.

IPRT Submission to the Joint Committee on Justice on Anti-Social Behaviour

21st January 2022

IPRT was invited by the Joint Committee on Justice to make a written submission on the topic of 'Anti-Social Behaviour'.

Department of Justice: Mid-Year Progress Report on Justice Plan 2021

12th August 2021

The Mid-Year Progress Report on Justice Plan 2021 was published in August, and details the progress made so far to achieve 5 goals - or 240 actions - identified in the Justice Action Plan 2021 published earlier this year.

Prison recidivism 2015 cohort

25th June 2021

New figures published by the CSO find that almost 62% of people released from prison in 2015 re-offended within three years. In response, the IPRT is calling for the Government to introduce a statutory obligation on agencies co-operate around prisoner release.

Youth Justice Strategy marks an opportunity to transform the lives and futures of children facing multiple disadvantages – IPRT

15th April 2021

IPRT welcomes many of the evidence-led plans set out in the new Youth Justice Strategy, however, concern remains over certain proposals.

Young Adults on Remand: A scoping study for T2A

1st February 2021

The briefing examines to what extent the specific developmental needs of young adults are taken into account by courts when making decisions about whether to remand defendants into custody.

High rates of reoffending following imprisonment for less serious crime demands alternative response – IPRT

5th August 2020

MEDIA ADVISORY: New figures published by the Central Statistics Office find that 55.2% of people released from prison in 2014 reoffended within 3 years. Nearly 80% of those aged under 21 when they were committed to prison reoffended within three years of being released, and 75% of people imprisoned for public order offences reoffended within three years. Reoffending rates remain too high and this demands alternative.responses

IPRT Submission to the Department of Justice on the Draft Youth Justice Strategy 2020-2026

30th June 2020

Adopting an evidence-informed approach, IPRT outlines four key areas of youth justice that should be reinforced or inserted into the Draft Youth Justice Strategy.

IPRT welcomes Draft Youth Justice Strategy proposals to extend youth justice supports to young adults aged up to 24

4th May 2020

ADVISORY: Proposals to extend youth supports to young adults aged up to 24, place a positive duty on State agencies to work together, and a clear and consistent focus on reaching hard-to-reach groups are among a number of evidence-informed progressive elements included in the Draft Youth Justice Strategy.

The brain does not fully develop until age 25 – Scottish Sentencing Council.

26th February 2020

Judicial sentencing should take account of persuasive evidence that the adolescent brain continues to mature into adulthood and does not reach full maturity until approximately 25-30 years of age.

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