Lord Falconer has warned that people are returning to prison for petty reasons. He served as lord chancellor and justice secretary from 2003 to 2007. He noted that 78 per cent of people recently recalled for licence breaches had not reoffended.
He made his case in an article for Labour List. A missed appointment or a change of address can count as non-compliance, he said. Such breaches, he argued, often arise amid homelessness, poor mental health, addiction, debt and broken support networks.
He warned that recall can disrupt treatment, housing, work and family ties. In his words, people can become caught in a cycle of “release, recall, release, recall”.
Recalls outpace releases
The Ministry of Justice published its quarterly offender management statistics on 29 October. They recorded 12,338 recalls to prisons in England and Wales between April and June 2026. Recalls outnumbered releases for the second quarter running.
Across the first half of 2026, the figures show 25,531 recalls and 25,255 releases. That gives a recall rate of 101 per cent. The MoJ cautions that the two numbers do not compare directly. One person can face recall more than once. Since last year, most recalls have lasted a fixed term of 56 days.
Rising recalls and ever-longer sentences sit behind the shortage of prison places. That shortage has pushed successive governments into controversial early release schemes.
Three proposed reforms
Lord Falconer urged the Government to act quickly. His first priority would be “an early review of every existing recall, with a duty to explain why continued custody is still necessary”.
He set out three further steps. The first is a presumption against recall for minor and technical breaches where risk stays manageable. The second is a written explanation of why a community response falls short before any recall. The third is a support response, rather than custody, for breaches linked to homelessness, addiction or mental ill-health.
Rob Preece speaks for the Howard League for Penal Reform as its head of communications. He blamed overcrowding, staff shortages and poor conditions for making rehabilitation close to impossible. He said: “The alarmingly high rate of recalls is making a terrible problem even worse.”
Pavan Dhaliwal, chief executive of the charity Revolving Doors, said support was often missing on release. She said: “Recalls of any kind should be a last resort.”
She added that people who face recall have rarely committed new offences.
