Reoffending (Hansard, 23 January 1997)

§ 2. Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is his current estimate of the proportion of the prison population who reoffend after being released. [10548]

§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Miss Ann Widdecombe)
The most recent available information indicates that 51 per cent. of all sentenced prisoners discharged in 1992 from Prison Service establishments in England and Wales were reconvicted for a standard list offence within two years.

§ Mr. Cohen
Does not the fact that more than half of all prisoners reoffend within two years of release make a mockery of the Home Secretary's claim that prison works? Are not the reoffending rates similar after prison and after probation, whereas the cost per prisoner is £1,800 per month and the cost of probation is less than £200 a month? Are there not strong cost and rehabilitation grounds for putting fewer people in prison?

§ Miss Widdecombe
No, in either case. First, prison reconviction rates at present are better than reconviction 1059 rates for those being sentenced in the community. Secondly, it is not merely a question of cost. The hon. Gentleman should understand that prison works by protecting the general public from the activities of those who are kept within it.

§ Sir Ivan Lawrence
Is it not astonishing that the reconviction rate for those sentenced in the community is higher by 4 per cent. than the reconviction rate for those sent to prison? Does my hon. Friend draw from that fact the conclusion either that the probation service is not so effective as it ought to be in rehabilitating offenders in the community, or that prison is more effective than many people think that it is in rehabilitating offenders inside prison?

§ Miss Widdecombe
I attribute the success of the Prison Service in rehabilitation to the tremendous strides that it has made in its programmes over the past few years. The number of prisoner hours in education has increased from 4.6 million in 1979 to 9.4 million in 1995–96.

§ Mr. Campbell-Savours
You have doubled the number of prisoners.

§ Miss Widdecombe
There has been a rise of 21 per cent. in expenditure between 1993 and 1995. The hon. Member for Workington (Mr. Campbell-Savours) called out from a sedentary position that the number of prisoners has doubled. If he works it out, he will see that the rise in the number of hours has far outstripped the rise in the number of prisoners. The types of national vocational qualification offered have increased from 24 only three years ago to 48, and there has been a similar increase in offending behaviour courses. That is where the explanation lies.

§ Mr. Winnick
Is it not important that those who commit the most serious crimes should be in prison in the first place? Is the Minister aware that many of us are deeply concerned that those responsible for the murder of Stephen Lawrence have not been brought to justice? Is it not important that every effort should continue to be made to put those who murdered that 17-year-old lad in the dock? We hope that speedy progress will be made by the police force.

§ Miss Widdecombe
Whereas I can extend my sympathy to the relatives concerned, I cannot comment on the case in the terms that the hon. Gentleman invites. Where serious crime has been committed, it is important that the perpetrators are brought to justice. If the hon. Gentleman feels that as strongly as I do, and if he believes that those who commit the most serious crimes should be in prison, why did the Labour party abstain on the Crime (Sentences) Bill last week?

§ Mr. Booth
As was stated in the lead-up to the Prisoners' Earnings Bill last year, Home Office research shows that prisoners released from prison after having proper work experience in prison had a reoffending rate that is 50 per cent. better. As the Home Office supported the Bill, will it go on monitoring the working of the legislation?

§ Miss Widdecombe
I congratulate my hon. Friend on introducing that Bill. I can confirm that it assists prisoners 1060 if they have good work opportunities in prison. We shall, of course, monitor that and seek to increase those opportunities.