“It’s people’s lives”: We need to talk about recalls
Revolving Doors has been fighting to raise attention to the crisis in prison recalls, which currently make it harder for people to exit the revolving door of crisis and crime. 25 years ago there were around 3,000 recalls a year. In 2025, that figure was 48,327 – an increase of 125% from 2015 and 29% from last year, and the highest since annual records began in 2015.
The latest statistics, released today, show that 14,349 people were recalled in the three months to December 2025 alone – an increase of 38% compared to the same quarter in 2024.
Only 20% of recalls took place following accusations people had committed new offences – compared to 25% because of ‘failure to reside’ at the address probation holds for them. Given the scale and impact of the housing crisis, many people leave prison to unstable, inadequate or unsafe housing that compounds issues related to addiction. Not only does this set people up to fail, it often leaves them in a new revolving door of release and recall without appropriate support for rehabilitation and recovery.
In light of the shocking and sustained rise in recalls, three of our members, James, Andrew and Henry spoke to us about what went wrong and what could have changed things.
James
If you’re an addict and you’re clean, you’ll be released from prison. They’ll put you into an HMO that’s rife with drugs. What are you going to do? Do you stay at the HMO and risk getting back into the same cycle and relapsing because it’s all triggers? Or do you try and leave that HMO and find somewhere yourself? If you don’t tell your probation officer or if they say you’re not allowed to because it’s part of your licence to be at the address – people are being recalled for things like that. And I think that’s ridiculous, because all you’re doing is trying to get out of an environment but you’re being forced to stay there.
Andrew
My experience was, ‘Oh, we haven’t had a chance to sort your address out.’ That’s the prison. ‘Probation will do it for you.’ You get to probation; they haven’t got a clue about it. I’ve been in places where I could probably have dealt with other users; you’ve just come out of jail, you’ve got £90 in your pocket and you’re expected to live like a normal person. And then I just think I might as well just go back to the prison at this point. I was actually better off in prison. That’s been part of my experience around recalls.
When it’s things like failing to attend and things like that, it should be more about actually helping somebody, rather than just banging all these demands on them and expecting them to do it. The figures are obviously showing that it’s not working.
James
Where probation are concerned, when they’re in control of your licence release and your conditions and all that. They’ve had so many years of people telling lies about why they didn’t attend that if you’ve got a genuine reason and you say, well, this happened, that happened, they aren’t interested. They just go by the rules. They don’t take every individual case on their merits. Automatically, you see, oh, here we go again, another one of them.
The probation in my area, they no longer provide help with transport to get to your appointments. They used to give you a bus ticket, but they no longer do that anymore. So, if you live even a few miles away, as far as they’re concerned, you walk it or you save your benefits. But if you got your benefits and you got paid three weeks ago, that’s getting a mark for a non-attendance for that reason.
Andrew
I also remember just feeling completely overwhelmed by all of that stuff. They used to move my area and then expect me to know it by chance. I was in an HMO, without internet. I haven’t got a smartphone, I can’t plot bus journeys. So even if I was putting effort into it and not going back the other way, nine times out of ten my addiction started again because I was somewhere where it was just rife. They put you in difficult areas and put you all together, so everyone’s got the same issues and it’s all massively overwhelming. I knew when I was getting released on a licence that I was going back to jail. Before I’d even started, I already knew.
Henry
I’ve always been released homeless every time. I’d be back two days later. So, you’re all releasing me homeless, but they’re saying I had to live it on the approved premises, but it was just setting me on my way with nothing. But then me calling me two days later for not having an address. I couldn’t understand that worked.
Triggers and pitfalls: the risk of relapse
James
Every sentence I’ve been released from, I’ve always got myself clean on that sentence, giving myself the best start on release. But I’ve always had the same problem. When I’m released on license, they’re sending me to an HMO. I get there and drugs are everywhere. There’s triggers all over the place, and then you’re trying to tackle that with having to deal with probation.
A week, two weeks — that’s not enough time to build up a rapport with the probation officer. You don’t feel like you’re going to get anywhere if you talk to them or open up to them. It’s not long before it’s demoralising, you start feeling lack of self-worth, self-respect, and before you know it, you just think ‘What’s the point?’ And you’re looking to press the self-destruct button. All those issues, they’re easy to deal with when you’re in prison. It’s not the drugs that addicts have got a problem with. It’s ourselves and it’s the drugs we turn to as a coping mechanism because it all becomes overwhelming.
Andrew
I remember I was in prison and we’d arranged for me to go to a rehab. I was all keen to go, got to the gate, got my £90 discharge grant, caught a taxi back with some lads and they were all talking about scoring. So, I’ve gone and scored. I’m around other addicts, but I’m not making any excuses. It was a dumb idea. I’ve presented to probation and said: look, I’ve used, I’ve messed this chance up with the rehab stuff. And she was like, all right, if you’re not going to the rehab, you’ve got to rough it or sofa surf at night. Straight away I just felt completely demoralised. I’ve just left prison now, now I’m homeless.
And it’s people’s lives, isn’t it? As an addict, I had very little self-respect and so I just became accustomed to jail. You’ve got to meet these people with compassion.
James
But it becomes terrifying. You leave prison, you give yourself the best start, you’re clean, you’re free of all substances. And you get put into one of them environments and it’s terrifying to leave your room. You don’t want to go out there because you’re worried you’re going to bump into a dealer.
Addicts struggle to cope with life on life’s terms, they’ve got all kinds of stuff going on in their head. It could be something as simple as, as they get back to get on the bus or whilst they’re waiting at the bus stop to go to their required probation appointment, there’s people stood there they used to use drugs with. All it’s going to take is one of them to say, oh, we’re off to score. And that’s all it’s going to take. Or, you wait for the next bus, but then you risk being late for your appointment and they class lateness as a failure.
What needs to change?
Andrew
Four or five different services come to prison a week before you get out that you expect you to remember which one’s different and what you’re going to go to. So maybe engage with [people in prison] towards the last couple of months inside and start saying: right, this is the area you’re likely to be moved to. I think there’s got to be some level of tech involved, even a burner phone or something like that, because how is a probation officer supposed to keep in touch with you? If you haven’t got a phone, they can’t send you smoke signals, can they?
Henry
When I got out last time, probation didn’t have a clue where I was going. So, when I got out and I said to them I was going to a recovery property, they didn’t even know what it was. They need to communicate better with support agencies, it’s crazy. But this is the only sentence I’ve not been recalled on, and I’ve been in jail 27 times. So, this is only off the back of the support I found for myself.
Andrew
I’m on [West Midlands Police’s] Offending 2 Recovery programme. I’d normally been back in prison myself by now but I have someone who could bring all these services together and one point of contact for them all. I couldn’t tackle all these different things. But now I have a relationship with one person and he does that stuff. As we’re going along I’m starting to do it myself but it took somebody being alongside me to start with, otherwise I was back to the norm.
I’m hearing that probation are taking on lived experience peer mentors. So when you were speaking to your probation officer, you’re building up a relationship with a lived experience peer mentor too. So then if your probation officer was to change, at least you’ve got your man to say: “Look, we’re sorry about this and I can fill the new person in on what I know” to soften that.
I think that would also make probation more approachable in general if you’ve got someone who has been through it. They’ve come out the other end of it, they’re working in probation but they’ve lived a life like we have and it’s tangible: this guy was me, now he’s sat across the other end of the table. So, you can see they can make it work for you and I think that would be very encouraging.
Henry
My peer support, he’s been a big part of my recovery, so obviously he’s been there every step of the way. It just keeps you engaging and connected with all different sorts of things. And so, in 27 times I’ve been in prison, this is the only time I’ve ever complied with probation because it is not a waste of time.
Andrew
If you were met with compassion and people actually trying to help you, you’re very unlikely to go back to it. It’s been nearly two years I’ve been out of prison now and that’s through building relationships with people who genuinely want the best for me, people who’ve literally got alongside me. Taking me to appointments and things like that. It sounds like a lot, but I was completely unmanageable and it really has taken that to help to stop that cycle. I think having a set peer worker, like a lived experience person from probation, to help you navigate all of this stuff would be brilliant.
Non-compliance needs to be seen in the context of need
For too many people caught in cycles of crisis and crime, recall is a punishment for their chaotic circumstances, rather than a tool for managing risk of harm. The experiences of people like Andrew, Henry and James need to be understood, so that supervision of those on licence can genuinely be supportive and rehabilitative. In so many cases, this needs to start with safe, appropriate housing – including in recovery communities and with other support – such as peer support, being part of the offer. Non-compliance needs to be seen in the context of need, rather than simply as defiance.
