World Homeless Day: The intersection between homelessness and the criminal justice system

In this blog, Mallika, Data and Research Officer at Nacro, explores the experiences of people being released from prison into homelessness and the efforts underway to address the growing issue.

World Homeless Day aims to raise awareness of the needs of people currently experiencing homelessness and promote support in local communities.

Leaving prison without a home is unfortunately far too common, and every month, around 1,000 people leave prison into homelessness, and evidence shows that this doubles their risk of reoffending.  

Although the number of people leaving prison has increased (rising from 70,040 to 86,040) this has been outpaced by the increase in the number leaving homeless (rising from 9,210 to 12,840).  This is a 40% rise in the last year. 

We’ve identified some of the barriers that prevent prison leavers from accessing housing, drawing on our staff’s experience of service delivery, the voices of the people we support, and our policy research. 

• Receiving a prison sentence of even a few months can destabilise a person’s life and lead them to lose their home, job and close relationships. 
• Many people leaving prison have support needs but there’s currently not enough supported housing available for them, which helps people not just with a home but also the support needed to stay in it and address their wider needs. 
• Finding private rented accommodation is often difficult for prison leavers due to stigma which some attach to them. Being in prison also makes obtaining references and guarantors hard, as well as high rents and deposits feeling insurmountable. 
• There are limited move-on options from short-term accommodation for prison leavers.

The Ministry of Justice recognised the need to take action on prison leaver homelessness and introduced a transitional accommodation scheme for prison leavers at risk of homelessness. This has been welcome and has provided relief for many.

However, with the numbers of people released homeless increasing, and the expectation of more people being managed in the community in the future, there is clearly an urgent need for more to be done.

What are the consequences?

Leaving prison homeless sets people up to fail. It makes it incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to turn your life around. It becomes so much harder to find or hold down a job, to access mental health or substance misuse support and all the other things we know contribute to rehabilitation.   

Unsurprisingly therefore homelessness after prison increases the risk of reoffending. The latest MoJ stats show that homeless prison-leavers are twice as likely to reoffend.

This fails us all.

High levels of reoffending not only fails to protect communities, it exacerbates the prison capacity crisis and contributes to the £23.6 billion cost of reoffending to the UK economy. It is crucial that the Government prioritises action to tackle homelessness after prison.  

Read more of our justice policy asks here. 

Anna* – who came out of prison in January 2024 after serving a 6-month sentence for fraud said: 

“Why send somebody to prison for less than 12 months? The cost of it alone is absurd and it’s a waste of a person’s life. 

The current prison system penalises people for poor mental health. People with mental health issues don’t need to be in prison, it’s the wrong place for them. Far too often I met people who came into prison who were deeply mentally unwell and they left in a far worse state than when they arrived – lonely and addicted to drugs. What’s the point in that? What good does that do for them or for the communities they are released into? 

I don’t think you’d have as many people going to prison or reoffending if they were allowed to start a new life. I hope that more community sentences mean that people with drug addiction and mental health issues will get the support they need to build a better life for themselves away from crime.” 

*Anna’s name has been changed to protect her identity.