Based on the latest Home Office findings, 689 (67.4%) of the 1023 foreign prisoners released from jail will have committed offences within 24 months of release. And within only 12 months, at least 501 will have been reconvicted.

Of the 288 released since August 2005, 109 will have been reconvicted with 6 months, based on the latest Home Office figures revealing the behaviour of criminals released from prison in 2002 or given a community sentence commencing in the same year.

In December 2005 the Home Office published the re-offending record of sentenced offenders released from prison in 2002. Two years after release 67.4% had been reconvicted. Moreover, reconviction is a very restrictive measure of their reoffending rate - only about 12% of police-recorded crimes lead to convictions or cautions. A Home Office chart records how much time passed until their first re-conviction. The chart gives figures for criminals sentenced to both custody and community sentences, and so under-estimates the reconviction rate of those sentenced to prison.

If the 1023 foreign prisoners were reconvicted at the same rate as all other sentenced offenders, 389 would have been reconvicted within 6 months and 501 within a year.

Of the 288 released after August 2005, 109 would have been reconvicted within 6 months and 141 by the end of 12 months.

Table 1
Estimates of re-conviction rate of 1023 foreign prisoners

Table 2
Estimates of re-conviction rate of 288 prisoners

Calculations by Civitas

Source: Cuppleditch, L. and Evans, W., Re-offending of adults: results from the 2002 cohort. Home Office Statistical Bulletin 25/05, December 2005.