Many, men in particular, return to petty crime

 

 

Home Office statistics show that one in three men have at least one criminal conviction for a non-motoring offence by the time they are 30.

The United Kingdom has the highest imprisonment rate in Western Europe at 145 per 100,000 of the population. It costs the taxpayers over £40,000 per year to keep a person in prison.
According to the Reducing Re-offending by Ex-prisoners (2002) report by the Social Exclusion Unit, reoffending by ex-prisoners is consistently high. In 2008 statistics of reoffending rates average 70% for those given community penalties and 76% for those sent into custody.

The report identified nine factors that contributed to the high rates. Major contributing factors included drug and alcohol addictions, problems with housing former offenders and the lack of education and training skills that leads to employment problems.

A survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development showed that people with a criminal record are part of the 'core jobless group' that more than 60 per cent of employers deliberately exclude when recruiting. 

 

 

Housing problems before imprisonment

 

More than 50 per cent of prisoners have housing problems before they are imprisoned according to research on short term prisoners by The Home Office. So apart from the deterrent of a criminal record if a prisoner has no home when he leaves prison either then his difficulties in employment are increased even more. This makes it more likely for a person to return to crime. Juliet Lyon, Director of the Prison Reform Trust explained:

“We know that stable accommodation can cut re-offending by 20 per cent. This is not surprising as the need to find housing makes it hard to find a job and earn money legitimately.

“Over three times as many ex-prisoners with an address on release are in paid employment as those without an address.”

NOMS, the National Offender Management Service, also believe if landlords, employers and others don’t trust ex-prisoners, they are often pushed towards reoffending.