§ Mr. BeithTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to commission research comparing recidivism rates of prisoners leaving privately and publicly managed prisons. [46241]
§ Ms QuinThe Home Office Offenders and Corrections Unit monitors reconviction rates for each prison. The latest survey covered prisoners discharged in 1994, and included the privately managed prisons in operation at that time.
The present data are based solely on the prison from which a prisoner is discharged, irrespective of the time they have spent there. In many cases, the bulk of the total sentence will have been spent in establishments other than that from which a prisoner is discharged.
The Prison Service is currently examining ways of constructing more effective forms of measurement to improve our monitoring of recidivism.