Recommendation 33

Almost half of those who spend time in prison will go on to reoffend within a year of their release. Reoffending costs society and the economy £18.1 billion each year. Over half of this (£10 billion) is the direct costs to individuals and services due to a crime taking place.75 Reoffending can also have a considerable impact on the emotional wellbeing of victims and on wider society. The Ministry recognised that the best way to tackle crime was to reduce reoffending. HMPPS similarly told us that it was working hard to ensure that when people leave prison, they have the right support in place and do not reoffend. It told us that it had recruited a new director for reducing reoffending, specifically to help it look more widely at how it could reduce reoffending, as well as having established resettlement and training prisons to help prisoners address the behaviour that led to them to reoffend. HMPPS also told us that it was working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions and the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to identify how they could provide the proper support for people leaving prison through initiatives such as the Prison Leavers Project. It explained that this was aligned with its Through the Gate programme, which looked at the needs of people leaving prison and started working with them several weeks before they leave prison to try to address their needs. Witnesses explained that reoffending was not just an issue for HMPPS or the Ministry and that addressing it would require a cross-government effort.76