In the research carried out by senior officer Kimmo Hypén, all the offenders who had been convicted to an unconditional prison sentence and who had been released in the years 1993-2001 were under survey. The total data collected from the central prisoner register includes 30 000 separate persons and their 100 000 prison terms.

In the years 1993-1997, 40 percent of the released first-timers started a new, unconditional prison sentence during five years after release. The share of those who had been convicted to a new prison sentence hardly grew after five follow-up years even if the follow-up time was continued up to ten years at most. A quarter of the released in 1996 returned to prison after release without a new offence in the knowledge of the authorities. They came to serve a sentence which before release was not yet legally valid. Genuine recidivists of the first-timers and the released in 1996 were 35 percent.

Men re-offend more frequently than women and the young more frequently than the old. The offenders for the first time in prison re-offend more rarely than those who have been sentenced to prison at least twice. 85-95 percent of the offenders who had been released under the age of 18 started a new prison sentence. The size of this age group is small, on the average 27 released annually. In the oldest age group the share of the recidivists was 20-30 percent. The offenders convicted for robberies and property offences had the highest risk of recidivism, the lowest was among the ones convicted for homicides and sexual offences. The share of recidivists grew along the times of incarceration. Of the ones ending up in prison cycle, four in five returned back to prison within five years after release. It is worrying that since the year 1997, the relative shares of recidivists have increased about by one percent each year.

However, only few of the hundred released end up in prison cycle. The general notion of the great probability of ending up in prison cycle is false. As of a hundred first-timers 35 return to prison, the flow of thousands of first-timers continued for decades has produced that despite the small probability most of the inmates in prison are manifold recidivists. The prisoners’ higher than the rest of the population’s age constant mortality explains the breaking off of the prison cycle only partially. The released prisoners’ greatest single causes of death are suicides, deaths connected to intoxicants and traffic accidents.

The prisoners who have ended up in prison cycle are a challenge both to the Criminal Sanctions Agency and to the society at large: they are the sickest, poorest and most socially excluded part of the population. Of them, however, one third stay during their each new prison term permanently in liberty. The likelihood of staying in liberty is greatest among those who abstain from intoxicants.

Additional information:

• Senior officer Kimmo Hypén, the Criminal Sanctions Agency, tel. 050 599 2455
• The research can be read in the address www.rikosseuraamus.fi/25234.htm