The prisoner who escaped from London hospitals twice in one week isn't just a security failure. He's the face of Britain's longest-running crime crisis: we cannot stop criminals from committing more crimes.

In 1945, Britain had 18 reoffenders per 1,000 offenders. By 1964, that figure had rocketed to 31 per 1,000. That's a 72% surge in less than two decades. (Source: Ministry of Justice, Proven Reoffending -- proven-reoffending_jan24_mar24_3_monthly -- A7b_(3_monthly))

This wasn't about rising crime generally. This was about the same people doing it again and again. The post-war justice system, designed for a different Britain, was already failing to break the cycle.

The timing tells a story. The late 1940s and 1950s were Britain's supposed golden age of social cohesion. Full employment, new towns, the welfare state taking shape. Yet reoffending was surging. Even when society was rebuilding itself, the criminal justice system couldn't rebuild the criminals.

Today's headlines about child abuse becoming more complex to police and prisoners slipping out of hospital custody aren't new problems with modern twists. They're the same problems we've been failing to solve since rationing ended.

The 1964 peak of 31 reoffenders per 1,000 came just as Britain was entering the swinging sixties. Social revolution, economic boom, cultural transformation. But criminal justice? Still broken. Still watching the same faces cycle through the same courts.

This isn't about being tough or soft on crime. It's about a system that has spent 80 years perfecting the art of temporary removal rather than permanent change. We got very good at catching criminals. We never learned how to stop making them.

The prisoner who escaped twice this week will likely be caught again. The question the 1964 data poses is simple: what happens after that? Because if history is any guide, we'll see him again.