Time after Time
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An excoriating account of the state of our broken justice system, and the failings that keep people trapped in cylces of offending. Heartbreaking and infuriating in equal measure.
Highlights
Reoffenders are responsible for the vast majority of all crimes: around 80 per cent of those receiving cautions or convictions have offended before.9 Turning this statistic on its head shows just how deep the problem runs. If we solved reoffending, we’d prevent 80 per cent of all crimes.
every three days someone is murdered by an offender on license.
Every two days an ex-prisoner takes their own life while under probation supervision,
37 per cent of all prisoners are released without accommodation,150 which makes them about 20 per cent more likely to reoffend.
He spent a month on the streets waiting for his benefits letter, and ended up reoffending. ‘I never sat down and thought, “I’m going to get up to no good.” But naturally I did do something here or there to put a few quid in my pocket, just to speed me on my way.’
The suicide rate among people leaving prison has recently increased sixfold to 212 per 100,000, more than double the rate for prisoners, which is around 83 per 100,000. The rate among the general population is only about 14 per 100,000, which means that former prisoners are 15 times more likely to kill themselves.
In every other prison it’s always “What did you do? What did you do? What did you do?” Grendon was the first time anyone asked me, “Why did you do it?”’