Three in every five people released from prison reoffended within three years according to new figures released by the Central Statistics Office.
The figures also show that burglars, thieves and public order offenders were the most likely to reoffend and that people tend to stop reoffending as they get older.
While rehabilitation is a central tenet of the Irish Prison Service, today's figures show that it is not succeeding in showing the majority of its inmates the error of their ways.
Today’s CSO figures show that 61% of inmates released from prison in 2017 had reoffended by 2020.
The three-year recidivism rate is 78% for burglars and public order offenders, 71% for those convicted of theft and related offences, 40% for drug offenders and 12% for sex offenders.
Those working with and providing support for ex-prisoners say the services are not there to keep people out of jail.
The prisoner rehabilitation group, Pace says the availability of services for those released from custody remains a major issue. Lisa Cuthbert says the type of people who reoffend have problems with drugs and alcohol addiction and these are health not criminal justice issues.
Offenders living in Westmeath and Cavan had the highest rate of one year reoffending, while those living in Wexford, Sligo and Donegal had the lowest.
Six out of every ten inmates under 21 years old re-offended within a year.
While the number of prisoner reoffending and returning to prison may seem high, today’s figures also show the numbers of inmates reoffending following their release from prison has reduced.
In the decade from 2011- 2020, the percentage of inmates reoffending within a year of release dropped from 54% to 41%.
The Irish Penal Reform Trust said that reoffending is "one of the key benchmarks of an effective justice system".
In a statement, the IPRT said that the "reduction in recidivism over the last decade is welcome and reflects a period of reduced prison crowding and investment in rehabilitation".
"However, the statistics published today relate to people who were released from custody as late as 2020. Since then, we have seen significant increases in the number of people in prison. Overcrowding has been a common feature of the prison system over the past year, with repeated use of mattresses on prison floors in response to the swelling numbers in custody. Not only is this concerning from a human rights perspective, but crowded prisons with reduced access to services undermine opportunities to address the causes of offending and could impact future reoffending rates."
It said the "statistics indicate that people imprisoned for short sentences have the highest rates of re-offending following their release" and that this was no surprise.
The IPRT said "it is well-documented that short sentences offer limited scope to engage in some of the positive rehabilitative services available in prison".
"Community sanctions, on the other hand, often have lower reoffending rates, are less damaging than prison, are less costly, and provide benefits to the community.
It said "many factors that can prevent reoffending, such as good mental health, accommodation, education and employment, sit outside the scope of the justice system".
The Irish Prison Service said reducing crime and reoffending was a priority for the Department of Justice and Equality and the Prison Service.
It said the CSO figures indicated a decline in reoffending in recent years and that "overall there has been a decline across the 3-year, 1-year and 1-year fine committals re-offending indicators".
"The revised 1-year re-offending indicator for 2020(41%) dropped 13 percentage points when compared to the 1-year re-offending estimate for 2011 (54%). Furthermore, the 1-year re-offending estimate decreased by 4% between 2019 (45%) and 2020 (41%)."
