This is an Important new study from College of Policing ‘What Works Centre’ on the effect of imprisonment on reoffending. It reports that custodial sanctions are counterproductive in reducing crime, and is on high quality international research (meta-analysis 116 studies). "On average, evidence suggests custodial sanctions have increased reoffending vs non-custodial sanctions - being sentenced to custody led to statistically significant increase in reoffending. This translated to estimated 54% of the group of offenders given a custodial sanction reoffending, compared to 46% comparison group" (who received non-custodial sanction)...The review found no conditions where custody reduced reoffending... Moderator analyses found that the increase in reoffending following custody remained true regardless of offender characteristics, type of custodial sanction, country or time spent imprisoned.
