Recalls to Jail Outnumber Releases in England and Wales

More people were recalled to prison in England and Wales between April and June than were released. Ministry of Justice figures published on Thursday show 12,338 recalls against 12,278 releases.

The January to March quarter showed the same pattern: 13,193 people went back to prison and 12,977 were let out.

In the year to June, 52,716 prisoners were returned to custody for breaching licence terms. That is 27% more than in the previous 12 months.

Early release and fixed-term recalls

The high recall rate is a key contributor to the prison capacity crisis. It also helped prompt early release schemes earlier this month.

The figures show 79,274 inmates were freed early between September 2024 and June 2026 under the SDS40 emergency measures. The scheme cut the share of a sentence some prisoners must serve from 50% to 40%. A permanent early release scheme replaced it on 1 October under the Sentencing Act 2026.

The ministry said SDS40 was one of several policy changes likely to have driven the rise. Most offenders are now taken back into custody for 56 days and then released again, known as a fixed-term recall, rather than being held until the end of their sentence. The ministry said it was "vital those who break the rules can be hauled back to prison".

Rob Preece of the Howard League for Penal Reform said the "alarmingly high rate of recalls is making a terrible problem even worse". Enver Solomon, chief executive of the charity Nacro, said many released prisoners return to lives of addiction, mental health problems and homelessness, and that recalls must be addressed urgently.

Deaths, self-harm and serious offences

Safety statistics showed 360 people died in prison in the 12 months to the end of September 2026. Sixty-six of those deaths were recorded as self-inflicted.

Prisons logged 68,231 self-harm incidents in the 12 months to June, one every eight minutes. Incidents fell by 12% in men's prisons and 3.8% in women's prisons.

A separate dataset showed the number of serious offenders on probation charged with a serious further offence rose for the third year running, to a record. Of 281 people charged, 119 were registered sex offenders, 128 were murderers and four were terrorists or posed a terror risk.

Source: The Guardian