‘Limit prison to only most serious offences’

There have been calls for the Government to take a fresh look at the effectiveness of sending people to prison after a new report showed almost half of prison inmates had re-offended within three years.

Significantly, prisoners jailed for robbery, extortion and hijacking offences were statistically most likely to re-offend as were those whose initial offence involved burglary and theft and related offences. Recidivism in all those categories stood at over 60%

The report issued by the Central statistics Office (CSO), based on a 2010 cohort of offenders, showed more than 45% of the 9,339 people monitored had committed further crimes.