Corrections Victoria is to change the way it measures criminal reoffending following a national agreement.
Announcing the change, Corrections said the new measures would only include people who were convicted and sentenced to serve time in prison within two years of their release.
“The rate will exclude people who are remanded in custody within two years, but do not go on to receive a sentence of imprisonment until more than two years after their release,” Corrections said.
“The change to Victoria’s measurement of recidivism follows a national agreement of appropriate counting rules,” it said.
“It is a more accurate reflection of the rate at which sentenced prisoners return with a new sentence within two years of their release.”
Corrections said the new measure of recidivism would also improve its ability to compare data across States and Territories.
The Agency said under the new methodology, the expected outcome for the 2021-22 rate of return to prison within two years was 37.7 per cent.
“This is a better result than the 40.7 per cent rate the old methodology expected for 2021-22,” it said.
“Whether using the old or new methodology, the recidivism rate for 2021-22 shows improvement compared to the previous year’s rate of 43.6 per cent.”
Corrections said the new counting rules also effected the result for the rate of return to corrective services within two years of discharge from a community corrections order.
It said the expected outcome for this measure for 2021-22 was 10.5 per cent, 2.6 percentage points lower than the result recorded in 2020-21 (13.1 per cent) and better than the target rate of 16 per cent.
“Even before the new improved methodology, Victoria had one of the lowest recidivism rates in the country,” Corrections said.
“Our rate of ex-prisoners returning to prison under sentence within two years has been lower than the national rate for five years.”
