Washington ? More former state inmates are getting arrested again after being released from prison than a decade ago, the Justice Department reported Sunday.

Convicted car thieves and burglars were more likely to be rearrested than those who had served time for murder or sexual assault, a department study found. Younger people and those with longer criminal records also were more likely to be arrested again.

Overall, more than 67 percent of former inmates released from state prison in 1994 were arrested again within three years, up from more than 62 percent in 1983, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported.

The data, the latest available, stirred more debate over the nation’s criminal justice system.

“Many states are being pressured to relax or abandon their habitual criminal sentencing laws,” said Michael Rushford, president of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a pro-law enforcement organization in Sacramento, Calif. “This report shows that would be exactly the wrong approach.”

But Vincent Schiraldi, president of the Justice Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, said the figures show that emphasis should shift from the tougher sentencing rules enacted during the 1990s to rehabilitation programs.

In the 1980s, prisons “were at least attempting to turn these guys’ lives around,” Schiraldi said. “They’ve stopped attempting to do that, and we are suffering for it now.”

The three-year study followed 272,211 former inmates released from prisons in 15 states in 1994. The highest rearrest rates were among those who had been incarcerated for stealing cars (79 percent), possessing or stealing other stolen property (77 percent) and larceny (75 percent).

Those with the lowest rearrest rates were people who had been in prison for homicide (41 percent), sexual assault (41 percent) and rape (46 percent).

Other findings:

Within three years, 52 percent of the prisoners released in 1994 were back in prison, serving time for a new sentence or because of a parole violation for their earlier release.

Men were more likely to be rearrested than women, 68 percent to 58 percent. Blacks were more likely to be arrested again than whites, 73 percent to 63 percent.

Among prisoners with one arrest prior to their release, 41 percent were rearrested. Among those with more than 15 prior arrests, 82 percent were rearrested in a three-year period.

The study followed prisoners released in Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas and Virginia.