ABOUT 1,500 people are "unlawfully at large" as a result of the temporary or early release system for prisoners, the Department of Justice document admits.
The way the release system is used - now largely to relieve pressure of overcrowding in the jails - has come to discredit the criminal justice system, according to the Department.
The Department's discussion paper says temporary and early release has been used "much more extensively than the Department would wish".
"Many offenders are released earlier than they should and it means that they, and indeed their partners in crime, feel less threatened by the prospect of receiving a custodial sentence.
The document says prisoners were granted full temporary release on 3,630 occasions in 1995, and renewable release (conditional on signing on at a Garda station or similar requirements) was granted 3,110 times.
The Department says these figures cannot be added together because some prisoners will have been granted both types of release.
The Department acknowledges that pursuing the 1,500 prisoners who are "unlawfully at large" has not been high on the State's list of priorities, although it adds that most of them are not dangerous.
"Most of them acquired the `at large' status not because of any particular threat to public safety but because they have breached a condition of their release, in some instances a relatively minor, technical breach."
"It is, nevertheless, manifestly unsatisfactory that there is only limited follow up in these cases."
The Department supports a greater emphasis on noncustodial sentencing, and says the Probation and Welfare Service has been understaffed and underfunded for years.
It says 80 per cent of offenders on community service orders do not reoffend, and that supervising each during sentence costs only £2,000 a year compared to the £46,000 average for keeping a prisoner in custody.