Inmates serving sentences for homicide, weapons offences and murder bids are among those being granted temporary release by the Irish Prison Service.
The system is grappling with severe overcrowding with anywhere between 350 and 380 inmates being given early release from their sentence over the past two months.
A snapshot of temporary release from March 31 reveals more than 20% let out were women despite females making up less than 5% of the prison population.
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There were also two males convicted of homicide offences freed from jail, both serving sentences of between five and 10 years.
One of them was in Mountjoy in Dublin while the other was doing their time in Castlerea Prison in Co Roscommon.
Eight people convicted of weapons or explosives offences were also let out as were 62 serving sentences for controlled drug offences. There were eight freed, who had been convicted of crimes relating to Government, justice, or organised crime.
Thirty four were on temporary release following convictions for attempts or threats to murder. And seventeen were released who were caged over for fraud and deception.
There was a prisoner convicted of kidnapping and two with convictions for robbery, extortion or hijacking freed.
The largest number on temporary release – 85 offenders – were serving sentences for road offences.
There were also sixteen set free with convictions for burglary, twenty from public order and social code offences, and twelve for dangerous acts. The headcount shows 358 prisoners were on temporary release – 283 males and 75 females. The figures also shows most of those freed are on shorter sentences – 222 in for less than a year.
There were 59 with sentences of between one and two years, 36 with of two to three years, and 25 serving between three and five years.
The Irish Prison Service said there were sixteen people with sentences of between five and 10 years on temporary release, around half of them inside for drugs offences.
The highest number of inmates on release from Mountjoy in Dublin with 82, followed by Cork Prison with 57. There were 51 females from the Dochas Centre in Dublin, and 24 from the women’s prison in Limerick.
There was just a single prisoner from Portlaoise high-security jail free and nobody serving time for sex offences was out on March 31.
In a statement, a spokeswoman said: “Decisions in relation to temporary release are considered on a case by case basis and the safety of the public is paramount when those decisions are made.”
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