PRISONER rehabilitation systems are failing due to overcrowding, staff shortages and dire living conditions, MPs have warned.

It is “unsurprising” that 80 per cent of crimes in England and Wales involve reoffending, said a justice committee report, published today.

Half of prisoners are not taking part in education or work and two thirds of offenders are not in work or education six months after being released from jail, it found.

Committee chairman Andy Slaughter said: “Continuing with a cyclical system in crisis mode which offers little real opportunity to turn around prisoners’ lives is a false economy.”

MPs added that recent high-profile cases of prisoners being released by mistake are symptomatic of a system under “horrendous strain,” and expressed alarm over reports of “significant real-term cuts to prison education budgets of up to 50 per cent.”

Howard League for Penal Reform’s Andrew Neilson said:  “The justice committee’s findings should come as no surprise in an overcrowded prison system where people are warehoused in cells and staff are poorly paid and supported, without a clear purpose.

“If someone is sent to prison, we should do all that we can to help them to turn their life around and move on from crime.”

A survey of prison officers has found that 85 per cent believe there are not enough staff to safely supervise prisoners.

More than four in five said there is not enough space for prisoners while 72 per cent are frequently stressed at work and 96 per cent believe they should have the right to strike, found the Prison Officers’ Association.

The Ministry of Justice has been contacted for comment.