Video: Initial period after release from prison 'crucial' for offenders Offenders leaving prison need more help in the days after their release, particularly if they have served short sentences, according to The Prison Reform Trust (PRT). The call comes as the Justice Secretary Chris Grayling unveils a new rehabilitation Bill forcing all prisoners to undergo 12 months of supervision after they are released. "A lot of short-term prisoners when they have been released have no idea where to go and live, they don't have a job, their family's probably broken up and many of them will end up back in prison in a very short space of time - it's what we call the revolving door," says Geoff Dobson OBE from the PRT, who previously worked as the Chief Probation Office for Hertfordshire. That support, on release and for the first few days and weeks is absolutely crucial. Those offenders with mental health problems who receive custodial sentences are often "made worse rather than better by being in prison, at great cost" says Mr Dobson, who calls for the implementation of a national system of "diversion schemes" in locations such as police custody suites and courts to get "low level offenders" into more appropriate types of treatment.