In this paper our studies on techniques for a posteriori error control and adaptive mesh design for finite element models in perfect plasticity are extended to plasticity with linear hardening. Here we confine ourselves to conventional strategies for mesh refinement in finite element methods which are mostly based on a posteriori error estimates for the global energy norm in terms of local residuals of the computed solution. These estimates reflect the approximation properties of the trial functions by local interpolation constants while the stability property of the continuous model enters through a global coercivity constant.