A business leader is set to launch a scathing attack on the UK's prison system, accusing jails of often being no more than a "hugely expensive bed and breakfast" facility.
Dr Neil Bentley, director of public services at the CBI, will say that re-offending rates showed the "colossal failure" of criminal justice policies.
Two out of three people who go to prison are convicted of another crime within two years of being released, rising to three out of four young offenders, Dr Bentley will tell a CBI conference.
"If two in three pupils left school unable to read or write, or two in three patients left their GP surgery as in need of medical attention as when they went in, the reaction would be one of anger, and rightly so."
The system needed to be reformed rather than be given more money, according to Dr Bentley, who will also warn that the current levels of prison overcrowding cannot be allowed to continue.
The Government's welfare-to-work policies should be more closely aligned with the criminal justice system to give offenders more help in finding work, Dr Bentley will say.
He will also call for greater use of community sentencing and for Government investment to improve the effectiveness of tagging.
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