Parole chief calls for stable accommodation for released life prisoners

Prisoners released from life sentences should be given stable accommodation as a priority, according to John Costello, chairman of the Parole Board of Ireland.

Mr Costello told The Irish Times that prioritising housing for the prisoners would cut recidivism and homelessness.

He said: “Accommodation should be given to as a priority. There’s only five or six life sentence prisoners being paroled every year. It wouldn’t be unreasonable.”

He also suggested moving life prisoners into halfway houses towards the end of their sentences, explaining: “It costs about €65,000 a year to keep someone in prison. You’d be saving all that money if you had one of these halfway houses. It wouldn’t be an additional cost.”

Mr Costello added: “Family is the best support for a released prisoner, providing they’re not dysfunctional. Most life-sentence prisoners don’t have the family supports; their parents have died. Normally if they had a partner, the partner has moved on.

“You’ve at least two years to plan their release because normally they move to an open prison two years before release.

“There’s two years to plan accommodation for them. It seems to me that they should be given priority if they’re former life-sentence prisoners. And that wouldn’t be a big deal.”

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald is setting up a committee to examine the management of released life sentence prisoners.