MORE criminals are returning to a life of crime within months of serving jail or community sentences than at any time since Labour came to power, figures released quietly yesterday show.

More than 60 per cent of young male thugs and muggers are convicted of another offence within two years of ending their sentence. Three quarters of young male burglars and thieves also reoffend, according to the Home Office figures placed unannounced on its departmental website.

A massive 90 per cent of offenders on the drug treatment and testing order, designed to tackle the link between drug use and prolific offending, go on to commit more crimes. The programme costs the Government £53 million annually. There is also a high dropout rate by offenders given the orders, which were introduced across England and Wales five years ago.

The figures are a severe blow to the Government, which is attempting to end the “revolving-door” syndrome, in which offenders are constantly in and out of jail. The data were released less than a week after Damien Hanson was convicted of the murder of the City financier John Monckton only three months after being released early from a twelve-year prison term. Elliot White, the second killer of Mr Monckton, was on a drug treatment and testing order at the time of the offence.

The figures show that 58.5 per cent of adult offenders released from jail in the first quarter of 2002 or starting a community sentence at the same time were convicted of a further crime within two years. When Labour came to power the figure was 53.1 per cent and in 2000 it was 57.6 per cent.

The number of criminals who committed further offences within two years of leaving jail was even higher. It rose three percentage points to 67 per cent last year and reoffending by those on community sentences increased fractionally to 53 per cent.

When Labour came to power the reoffending rate for prisoners within two years of being released was 58 per cent. More than a third of criminals reoffended within six months of ending their sentence and almost 50 per cent within a year.

Statisticians in the Home Office insisted that the figures meant that there had been an improvement because the actual number of new crimes was 0.2 per cent below their predictions. The explanation is scant comfort for the Home Office, which is already facing a semi-independent inquiry into reoffending by the two men convicted of killing Mr Monckton.

A Home Office spokesman admitted last night that performance had slipped and that the figures were disappointing. Baroness Scotland of Asthal, QC, a Home Office minister of state, said: “We accept that these statistics are less positive than we had hoped. However, they still show that the reconviction rate for adults is less than had originally been predicted.” She added: “Reducing reoffending is one of the core priorities of this Government and is at the heart of the reforms that led to the creation of the National Offender Management Service. Since 2001, we have made significant investments in the correctional servi-ces and have done more than ever before to address the underlying factors that lie at the root of reoffending.”

The Government is to publish a five-year strategy aimed at reducing reoffending early next year. It is to be published after the Prison and Probation Service has spent millions of pounds on psychology-based courses aimed at turning prisoners away from a life of crime.

Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: “Every case of re- offending creates a new victim of crime, more cost to the taxpayer and a wasted opportunity for the individual who committed the offence. The Labour Government should be ashamed that after eight years it is still failing to get a grip on the revolving door of reoffending.”

The increase in reoffending rates, particularly among ex-prisoners, could be linked to the characteristics of offenders now being sent to jail. Judges and magistrates have said that criminals have been becoming nastier, more prolific and more dependent on drugs in the past decade. Another reason may be that jails are overcrowded, meaning that staff have less time to work with offenders.

Juliet Lyon, the director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: “Buried in this statistical bulletin is the shocking fact that 67 per cent of adults released from prison in the first quarter of 2002 had been reconvicted within two years. This is a marked step in the wrong direction and shows the wasteful, counter-productive effect of tougher sentencing and overcrowded prisons.”

Enver Solomon, the deputy director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, said that the Government was misguided in believing that huge investment in the criminal justice system was a key driver in reducing crime and promoting public safety. “The figures show that the solution to reducing reoffending lies outside the criminal justice system,” he said.

Reconviction rates

Community rehabilitation order: 62.6%

Drug treatment and testing order: 88.9%

Community punishment order: 38.9%

Community punishment and rehabilitation order: 54.4%

Prison: 67.4%