CAP is a national criminal justice peer led charity. We provide five services: Community Support Scheme, Peer Mentoring, Prison In-Reach, Post Release Community Support and, Family Support. Our service users reflect the general prison population, i.e., 80% are affected by addiction, whilst 50% have mental health issues and 40% experience homelessness. Those leaving prison and trying to resettle and reintegrate back into society face considerable physical, emotional, and social challenges including addiction, physical and/or mental health, and homelessness. There were 8, 939 committals across Ireland’s 12 prisons in 2019. While there is no absolute data provided for those released year to year, the majority of people committed to prison will eventually be released. Roughly 54% of those being released from prison are re committed within 3 years.

This study on care plans and pathways for people who have left prison was done through desktop research, interviews, and consultations. It was carried out by Aisling Meyler as a central component of her master’s dissertation in Applied Social Research which she undertook in Trinity College Dublin in 2020. Aisling has worked in CAP for the past eight years in a range of roles including direct work with service users, she manages the Community Support Scheme and is a member of the Senior Management Team. Her exposure to the challenges of reintegration for both the person leaving prison and their communities and families inspired her to choose this research topic. She has witnessed first-hand the positive impact of effective sentence planning and believes there is strong evidence and scope for it to be developed exponentially.