http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3742237"David Barrett, PA Home Affairs Correspondent
The number of prisoners who commit a crime after being granted parole has risen significantly for the second successive year, official figures showed today.
The Parole Board also revealed 52 prisoners who had been freed on licence from life sentences were sent back to jail last year ? a rise of 73%.
Its annual report said it was a matter of ?great concern? that 7% of all inmates approved for release by the board committed another crime in 2003/4, up from 5.8% the previous year.
Research was already under way to examine reasons behind the rise, it added.
The overall number of recalls for all types of breaches rose by 28.6% year-on-year to 8,133. In 1999/2000 the total number of breaches was just 2,457.
Most of the recalls involved automatic release cases in which the board did not make the decision to free the offender, said a Parole Board spokeswoman."
