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The cost to the economy of re-offending by ex-prisoners is the same as putting on an Olympics every year, the Evening Standard can reveal.

The colossal waste — which costs taxpayers between £9.5 billion and £13 billion a year, the National Audit Office estimates — is blamed on failures in the criminal justice system.

It is illustrated by the latest Ministry of Justice figures, showing that 70 per cent of young offenders released from custody re-offend within a year. Some prisons report an 80 per cent rate. Among adult offenders who have served less than a year, the re-conviction rate is 60 per cent.

Despite pockets of good practice, the figures depict a system not fit for purpose and have prompted the Standard to launch a three-part series, starting today, scrutinising what is going wrong with our criminal justice system.

It comes after we this week revealed the shocking impact of gang violence in London, with 24 murders and 6,600 violent crimes committed by members in the last three years.

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Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has branded the situation “unacceptable” and next month introduces reforms to the way offenders are managed. But Shadow Justice Secretary Sadiq Khan said: “His reforms are about cost-cutting and could make things worse.”

The £13 billion NAO figure is based on Home Office calculations that include the direct costs of crime as well as re-imprisonment — which at approximately £42,000 a year per inmate is more than the cost of sending offenders to Eton.