Prison Re-offending Statistics 2020

This chapter describes the re-offending characteristics of persons who received a fine sentence sanction from a court for their offence during the reference year. Fine sentences are court decisions that order persons to pay a fine or alternatively face a period in custody. As most fine sentences are resolved without a custodial sentence (95% in 2020), and do not involve a significant period of detention in prison if a custodial sentence is imposed, the time period to a re-offence is calculated from the court outcome date. Further detail is available in the Background Notes.

Under half (45%) of fine sentences in 2020 re-offended within a year

Just 269 individuals in total were part of fine sentence sanctions managed by the Irish Prison Service in 2020, a fall from 766 in 2019. In total, just under half (45%) of individuals that received fine sentences in 2020 re-offended within a year of receiving the sanction. Individuals under the age of 21 (54%) had the highest likelihood to re-offend while individuals aged 26-30 (40%) had the lowest re-offending rate of the other age groups measured. See Figure 4.1 and Table 4.1.

Females (34%) who received fine sentences in 2020 less likely to re-offend than males (48%) within a year

Of the 64 fine sentences in 2020 that related to females (24% of all cases), 34% re-offended within a year of their sanction. In contrast 48% of the 205 males who also received fine sentences during 2020 re-offended within a year of receiving their court sanction. See Figure 4.2 and Table 4.2.