Crimes toll short jail term offenders

Adults who left prison in 2010 after serving less than a year went on to commit more than 80,000 crimes in the 12 months following their release, new figures reveal.
By The Newsroom
Published 9th May 2013, 09:54 BST

The Ministry of Justice found that 83,107 crimes were carried out by those who were in jail for less than 12 months, compared with 3,346 by those in prison for four years or more.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling blamed a lack of support and supervision for released prisoners for the reoffending rates, and vowed to bring about substantial changes to help break the “depressing cycle of offending”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The statistics showed that those released in 2010 after less than 12 months in prison were responsible for 29,098 thefts, 10,494 violent crimes and 3,862 burglaries.

The figures for those who served four years or more were: 605 thefts, 472 violent crimes and 492 burglaries.

Last week it was announced that criminals who had previously been jailed for at least a year were responsible for 208,699 offences in the 12 months up to September 2012.