The Parole Board was established to review the cases of prisoners with long-term sentences and to provide advice in relation to the administration of those sentences. It commenced operations in 2001 and this is its seventeenth Annual Report. As a general principle, it is only the cases of prisoners who are serving determinate sentences of at least eight years, or life sentences, that are reviewed, and these must first be referred to the Parole Board by the Minister for Justice and Equality. In the normal course, the Parole Board aims to review cases of prisoners sentenced to between 8 and 14 years’ imprisonment once half of that sentence has been served. For those sentenced to 14 years or more, or to a life sentence, the case is reviewed after seven years have been served. A total of 63 prisoners were referred to the Parole Board for review during 2018. All were invited to participate in the process.

Another major concern of the Board is the serious abuse of drugs and alcohol by many prisoners. A huge number of life sentence prisoners commenced taking drugs and/or alcohol as young teenagers. Figures provided by the Probation Service detail that 89% of offenders under the supervision of the Probation Service have had or currently have an addiction to alcohol and/or drugs.