Revolving door for jailed criminals

And offenders being monitored by the probation service went on to commit almost 600 serious further offences, including murder, rape and grievous bodily harm, in 2008/09.

In all, 74 per cent of offenders who were discharged from custody or started a court order between January and March 2000 were reconvicted within nine years, the Ministry of Justice said. Details of reconviction rates at individual prisons in 2007, released for the first time, showed that at one in eight adult prisons across England and Wales, more than 70 per cent of inmates serving short sentences of a year or less were released only to be reconvicted within 12 months.

At Dorchester prison, 74.7 per cent of inmates serving short sentences were released only to be reconvicted within 12 months.

The 237 men at Dorchester prison on short-term sentences had an average of more than 60 previous offences and had previously served an average of almost 10 custodial sentences.

At New Hall women's prison in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, 76.6 per cent of those on short sentences were reconvicted within 12 months.

Its 435 inmates had committed an average of more than 40 previous offences and served more than four previous custodial sentences.

And at Elmley category C prison in Kent, 73.9 per cent of those on short sentences were reconvicted within 12 months.

Its 418 inmates had committed an average of more than 40 previous offences and served more than six previous custodial sentences.

Justice Minister Crispin Blunt said: "Whilst it will be invidious to make comparisons between different prisons with very different types of offenders, this is another important step in focusing our work on ending the cycle of reoffending."

A "more intelligent approach to sentencing" was needed, he added.

"Reoffending rates among short- sentence prisoners remain unacceptably high. We will address this failure in the system by making prisons into places of hard work which prepare offenders more effectively for the outside world.

"Prison remains the right place for the most serious, dangerous and persistent offenders.

"We must stop the revolving door of crime and reoffending."

Offenders given short sentences have a higher reoffending rate than those given community orders, suspended sentences or probation supervision.

Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke has said he wants to cut the number of short-term prison sentences handed out by the courts to cut prison numbers and reoffending.

The figures also showed reconviction rates were higher for prisoners who experienced emotional, sexual or physical abuse as a child, witnessed violence in the home, who had been expelled or permanently excluded from school, or who had been taken into care.

They were also higher for those with no qualifications, the figures showed.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "These figures give Government a clear mandate to integrate its social and criminal justice policies.

"To prevent reoffending, it's the ordinary things that count – a home, a job and a supportive family.

"If you compare the results of a community penalty with a short prison sentence, you can see why the Justice Secretary wants to keep petty offenders out of prison and paying back in the community."