More than 3,000 crimes in Kirklees committed by re-offenders - but that's a cut

MORE than a quarter of adult and young offenders in Kirklees have gone on to commit 3,097 further offences in just one year.

And the break-down reveals whilst adult re-offending rates in Kirklees and Calderdale are both dropping – the rate for juvenile re-offending is on the rise.

The figures, released by the Ministry of Justice, show the percentage of all offenders who re-offended dropped from 29% in 2007/2008 to 25.7% in 2010/11.

But figures for only juveniles who re-offended have both risen in Kirklees to 35% in 10/11 compared to 33% in 08/09 and in Calderdale from 29.1% in 08/09 to 37.4% in 10/11.

West Yorkshire Probation Trust oversees the services for adult offenders.

Head of Kirklees Probation, Gini Whitehead, said: “We know that people don’t change their behaviour overnight, but we are proud of our successes in consistently reducing reoffending. Cutting crime is only possible through commitment and hard work and cannot be achieved in isolation.

“We recognise that there is always more we can do and together with our local partners we will continue to develop new initiatives and work closely to deliver further reductions in reoffending and protect our local communities.”

The figures further revealed 24.1% of adults re-offended in 2010/11 compared to 27.1% in 08/09.

In Calderdale the rate also dropped from 25.1% to 23.9% in the same period.

In 2010/2011 all those who re-offended in Kirklees committed 3,097 offences compared to 4,477 offences in the previous period.

The figures come as Justice Secretary Chris Grayling announced a massive shake-up in a statement to MPs after his Offender Rehabilitation Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech recently.

The Offender Rehabilitation Bill clears the way for companies and charities to reverse the trend which last year saw 200,000 offences committed by someone who had already served lengthy terms in jail.

There will be a new licence period and the supervision order last for a year for offenders who spend less than 12 months in prison.

For those jailed for one to two years, they will be subject to a licence period for 12 months instead of six.

Drug addict offenders will be forced to attend treatment appointments, with testing covering Class B as well as Class A drugs.

Other figures which are produced in probation trust areas are based on predicted target outcomes.

West Yorkshire Probation Trust’s figures show between October 2011 and September 2012 actual re-offending was 8.19% showing a drop of 18.83% against target.