Burglars will be given a chance to go straight under a new garda scheme.
Operation Opt In Acer is a pilot programme designed to help the top burglars in Tallaght and Rathfarnham to turn their backs on a life of crime.
Repeat offenders will be invited to sign up while they are still behind bars.
On their early release they will be assigned a case worker and their progress monitored.
Figures show that burlgaries in the south Duiblin communities are on the increase.
In the first 6 months of this year break-ins in Tallaght jumped 70 percent from 246 incidents in 2014 to 418 this year.
In Rathfarnham, burglaries have increase 57 percent.
Between January and June last year there were 160.
This year 251 have been recorded.
