Treatment of Sex Offenders


In 2009 the Sex Offender Management Policy: ‘Reducing Re-offending, Enhancing Public Safety was published. The policy is aimed at bringing about changes in offenders’ lives that reduce the risk of re-offending and enhance public protection.  It forms an integral part of the wider range of interventions by criminal justice and community-based agencies.

The Building Better Lives (BBL) sex offender programme commenced in 2009. It uses a strengths-based psychology approach and comprises three components:

  • the Exploring Better Lives (EBL) programme,
  • the Practising Better Lives (PPL) programme and
  • the Maintaining Better Lives (MBL) programme.

The EBL group aims to develop motivation and confidence about positive change. The PBL group focuses on obtaining a more detailed understanding of past offending and developing positive offence-free self management plans for the future. The MBL group aims to support ongoing progress and development for men who are serving longer sentences in prison and to ensure a through-care plan from prison to community-based supports.

The programme is delivered in Arbour Hill by a team of psychologists, including clinical and counselling psychologists, who have developed specific expertise in clinical practice including assessment and therapeutic work with men convicted of sexual offences.

Prison-based therapeutic interventions with convicted sex offenders also include one-to-one interventions, interventions by approved in-reach services and interventions available to prisoners generally.