GARDAÍ have confirmed they have sent letters to offenders apologising for failing to progress their prosecutions and denying them supports aimed at their rehabilitation.
Earlier this year a review of the Garda youth diversion scheme found that almost 8,000 reported crimes by more than 3,000 children had gone unpunished.
Following this revelation, letters of apology were sent to the victims.
However, it’s now emerged that letters of apology were also sent to offenders.
The former State Solicitor for Limerick City, Michael Murray has criticised the measure as “political correctness gone mad”.
A Garda spokesperson told the Limerick Post that ”where it was deemed appropriate, a letter was issued to an offender informing them that their case was not progressed appropriately, together with an apology for this organisational failing and any potential impact which precluded them from availing of certain services which are afforded to individuals within the Criminal Justice System.
“They were also provided with details of a helpline where further details of information and support services were available,” they added.
6,331 letters of apology were sent to “individual victims” and 891 to “commercial victims”. Asked for a figure for the number of letters sent to offenders, the spokesperson said it was not available at this time.
Mr Murray, who retired as Limerick State Solictior in 2017 after nearly 40 years prosecuting criminal cases on behalf of the DPP, said he was told the letters “apologised to the criminals for not dealing with them appropriately, and allowing them to escape the net”.
“I understand a lot of time and effort went into ascertaining how many of these cases exist and addressing this problem, which really isn’t a problem, in my view,” he said.
Mr Murray said the letters are “indicative of an over-emphasis on compliance”.
“I have a sense now that the new regime is very heavy-handed, and that there’s too much stick and not enough carrot to bring about the changes that are needed.”
He agreed there needed to be changes in how the force conducts itself, but criticised Commissioner Drew Harris’s style in implementing changes for the good.
“The best managers implement change by encouragement and by reward. Changes that are made using the stick, only cause resentment to fester and morale to decline.”
“The time and energy Gardaí have to spend on compliance work is detracting from the real nuts and bolts of the job. It is sucking the energy out of the system.”
“It’s one thing writing to the victims of crime but writing to the offender telling him ‘we’re sorry we didn’t deal with you properly’ seems to be political correctness gone mad”,” he added.
