HMP Dovegate's therapeutic community: an analysis of reconviction data

One of the underlying aims of a prison therapeutic community (TC) is to lower the rates of re-offending in those that take part in it. This study reports the reconviction data for 94 prisoners who had attended Her Majesty’s Prison Dovegate TC and had been released back into the wider community. The reconviction rate was collected using the Inmate Information System, a central database used by the UK prison service. The 48% reconviction rate amongst the liberated was lower than previously found in other prison treatment programmes. The majority of reconvictions (74.5%) were breaches of licence involving absconding. There were no reports of serious violent offending and only one report of sexual re-offending. Most re-offenders (87.5%) did so within a year of being released into the community. Analysis also revealed that 70% of reconvictions were committed by those who had spent less than 18 months in the TC, suggesting a treatment dosage effect. Whilst the results are encouraging, limitations and problems with re-offending as a treatment outcome measure are discussed.