Three in every five people released from prison reoffended within three years according to new figures released by the Central Statistics Office.
The figures also show that burglars, thieves and public order offenders were the most likely to reoffend and that people tend to stop reoffending as they get older.
While rehabilitation is a central tenet of the Irish Prison Service, today’s figures show that it is not succeeding in showing the majority of its inmates the error of their ways.
Today’s CSO figures show that 61% of inmates released from prison in 2017 had reoffended by 2020.
The three-year recidivism rate is 78% for burglars and public order offenders, 71% for those convicted of theft and related offences, 40% for drug offenders and 12% for sex offenders.
