PRISONERS COMMIT NEW CRIMES WITHIN THREE YEARS OF RELEASE, STUDY SHOWS

Almost two-thirds of released prisoners are arrested again for a serious crime within three years, according to a report released Sunday by the Justice Department. The report from the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics was based on a survey of prisoners released during 1983 in 11 states. It said that of the 108,580 prisoners released in those states in 1983, 62.5 percent, or about 68,000, had been rearrested by 1986 and charged with a total of 326,000 felonies and serious misdemeanors, including 2,300 homicides.

Most former prisoners were rearrested for the same crimes that they had committed before, the report said.

The report said those prisoners who had served more than five years in prison had lower rearrest rates than other offenders in the study.