A prisoner escaped from London hospitals twice in one week, grabbing headlines about security failures. But behind the dramatic individual cases lies a far bigger crisis: Britain's reoffending epidemic has exploded to levels not seen in generations.

In 2017, 74,766 people committed repeat offences. By 2024, that number had rocketed to 121,058 — a staggering 62% increase in just seven years (Source: Ministry of Justice, Proven Reoffending -- proven-reoffending_jan24_mar24_3_monthly -- A7a_(3_monthly)).

This isn't just about more crime. It's about the justice system losing its grip on rehabilitation entirely.

The timeline tells the story of a system in freefall. Through the 2010s, reoffending numbers held relatively steady, hovering around 75,000 annual cases. Prison reforms were working, slowly. Community sentences were keeping people out of the revolving door.

Then came 2020. COVID emptied courts and delayed sentencing. Early releases cleared overcrowded prisons. Probation services went remote. By 2021, reoffending had jumped to 89,000 cases. Officials called it temporary disruption.

They were wrong. The numbers kept climbing: 95,000 in 2022, 108,000 in 2023. This year's figure of 121,058 represents the highest reoffending rate since records began in modern form.

What changed? Prison sentences got shorter while waiting times got longer. The average time between arrest and trial now stretches eight months — double the 2019 figure. Offenders spend longer on bail, then serve truncated sentences in overcrowded cells with no meaningful rehabilitation programmes.

Community supervision collapsed too. Probation officer caseloads doubled during the pandemic and never recovered. Officers now manage 50+ cases each, making meaningful intervention impossible. One-to-one support became tick-box appointments.

The victims of this failure aren't statistics. Each reoffence represents someone's burgled home, stolen car, or violent assault. When the same person commits crimes repeatedly, it means the system failed to protect the public the first time around.

Prison escape stories generate outrage precisely because they're rare and visible. But 121,000 repeat offenders walking free after serving inadequate sentences represents a daily, invisible crisis that touches every community in Britain.

The numbers don't lie: we're not just failing to rehabilitate criminals — we're actively creating more of them.