From the Scottish Government today, the recidivism rates:
- The reconviction rate increased by 2.6 percentage points over the last year from 24.3% in 2019-20 to 26.9% in 2020-21. The average number of reconvictions per offender increased by 8% in the same period from 0.41 to 0.44 (Table 1).
- After last year’s COVID-19 impacted decrease, the increase in the reconviction rate and average number of reconvictions per offender still remains at one of the lowest levels recorded. The most recent figures are still lower than those ten years ago. Between 2011-12 and 2020-21, the reconviction rate has fallen by 2.8 percentage points from 29.6% to 26.9%, and the average number of reconvictions per offender has decreased by 20% from 0.55 to 0.44. (Table 1).
In England and Wales, in 2022, the figure was 25.5%
For interest, in the USA, the recidivism rate after 3 years is 66% and after ten, 82%.
Sources:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/reconviction-rates-scotland-2020-21-offender-cohort/pages/2/
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
it will be interesting to see if James Timpson, owner of the shoe repair and key cutting business, who has been appointed as a government minister with the specific task of reducing the number of people in prison, looks at what has been done in Scotland to reduce the rate of recidivism.
Although, I suspect there might be a degree of self publicising, Mr Timpson does seem to ‘walk the walk’ with regard to the resettlement of offenders. I wish him well.
Have the Scottish media reported on the low recidivism rate in Scotland? Silly question?
Alasdair Macdonald
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