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<p /> <p>Absconds have reached record lows - down 80% over the last 10 years - but
each incident is taken seriously, with the police contacted as a matter of urgency.
Over 97% of prisoners who abscond are re-captured and returned to custody. Re-captured
absconders will be returned to a more secure closed prison where they face either
a criminal prosecution for absconding or an internal adjudication in prison in front
of a visiting judge. In both cases they can receive additional time in prison.</p><p>
</p><p>The tables below provide details of the security category and offence type
of those absconders who are currently unlawfully at large having absconded between
April 2004 and March 2014 (the most recent period that statistics are available).
Information prior to April 2004 could only be collated by performing manual checks
across different databases and could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.</p><p>
</p><p><strong>Table1: Security category of absconders unlawfully at large from April
2004 to March 2014, as on 14 October 2014</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Current
Security Category</p></td><td><p>Number of absconders</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Cat
C<sup>1</sup></p></td><td><p>1</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Cat D</p></td><td><p>72</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Female
Open</p></td><td><p>4</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Immigration detainee <sup>2</sup></p></td><td><p>7</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong>
</strong></p><p><strong>Table2: Offence type of absconders unlawfully at large from
April 2004 to March 2014, as on 14 October 2014</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Offence
Type</p></td><td><p>Number of absconders</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Violence against
the person</p></td><td><p>11</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sexual Offences</p></td><td><p>1</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Robbery</p></td><td><p>5</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Burglary</p></td><td><p>10</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Theft
& Handling</p></td><td><p>8</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Fraud & Forgery</p></td><td><p>14</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Drug
Offences</p></td><td><p>19</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Motoring offences</p></td><td><p>1</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Other
offences</p></td><td><p>7</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Held for Immigration Purposes <sup>2</sup></p></td><td><p>8</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong>
</strong></p><p> </p><p><sup>1</sup> One Category C prisoner absconded from an accompanied
absence whilst out of the Cat C prison.</p><p><sup>2 </sup>Tables include absconds
of immigration detainees from establishments operated as Immigration Removal Centres
by NOMS under contract to the Home Office (one immigration detainee held in a Category
D prison has been included as a Category D absconder in Table 1).</p><p> </p><p><em>These
figures have been drawn from live administrative data systems which may be amended
at any time. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the
detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording
system.</em></p>
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