ENGLAND AND WALES — Seventy-seven people died within 14 days of being released from prison in England and Wales in 2025, the highest number since official records began in 2021. This marked a 28% increase from the 60 deaths recorded in 2024.
Analysis of Prisons and Probation Ombudsman reports found that one in four people who died within two weeks of release were released homeless. Ministry of Justice data showed that nearly 13,000 people left prison homeless or as rough sleepers in the year to April 2025, a 39% increase from the previous year.
The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman began investigating deaths occurring within 14 days of release in September 2021. Since then, 308 such deaths have been recorded, with more than 100 reports still under investigation. Officials noted that the number of people released homeless before they died is likely an underestimation due to ongoing inquiries.
"People come out of prison, they die and it goes unnoticed," Enver Solomon, chief executive of the social justice charity Nacro, said. "And these deaths are avoidable. We shouldn’t see it as something which is an inevitable consequence of people that have got a whole range of issues and challenges in their life."
"We see every day the difference having somewhere safe and secure to live, and the right support, can make to someone and how it can be a matter of life or death, tragically," Solomon added.
"The prison gates you’re being released through should be a bridge into rehabilitation when actually it’s a trap door into cycles of crisis and crime," Pavan Dhaliwal, chief executive of Revolving Doors, said. "Secure housing is the one core element to any form of rehabilitation. Prisons are already overcrowded and then you’re sending people back because they don’t have accommodation. It is absurd."
Stephen, a 31-year-old man whose name was changed for anonymity, recounted being released with minimal support. "They were releasing me sometimes with a fiver in my pocket and they were putting me out on the streets. I would only be out for two or three days. Sometimes I even got arrested the same night," he said. "I couldn’t get a job. What employer wants to hire a lad who hasn’t got anywhere to live? Who hasn’t got shower facilities? Crime was easier to just keep going back to for a very long time."