Being taken back to prison

You can be taken straight back to prison if you have been released on licence or parole and you break the rules of your probation. This is known as a 鈥榬ecall鈥�. Your offender manager will tell you why you鈥檝e been recalled.

There are three types of recalls.

Fixed-term recalls

You鈥檒l be sent back to prison for either:

  • 14 days - if your original sentence was less than 12 months
  • 28 days - if your original sentence was 12 months or more

When you鈥檙e released you鈥檒l be back on probation and licence until the end of your sentence.

Standard recalls

You鈥檒l go back to prison until the end of your sentence, unless a parole board or the Secretary of State for Justice decide to release you.

Your case will be sent to a parole board automatically after 28 days. They will either release you straight away or set a date (within 1 year) when you can be released on licence.

Your offender manager can also review your case at any time and recommend to the Secretary of State that you should be released.

Indeterminate sentence recalls

Your case will be sent to a parole board either:

  • 28 days after you go back to prison
  • within 12 months of your last parole board review

The parole board will do one of the following:

  • release you on licence immediately
  • set a date when you鈥檒l be released on licence
  • keep you in prison
  • ask you to attend a hearing
  • delay making a decision about your sentence until they have more information