Accidental prisoner releases have gone up under Labour, minister admits
A government minister has admitted accidental releases from prisons have increased under the Labor government, but insisted the government was “gripping” the crisis.
Ministers are facing increasing pressure over a series of high-profile manhunts, with Justice Secretary David Lammy admitting on Friday there is “a mountain to climb” to tackle the crisis in the prison system.
On Saturday, it emerged that two prisoners who were mistakenly released last year were still at large, and two other prisoners who were apparently mistakenly released in June this year were missing.
Asked if she knew how many prisoners in total were still at large, culture minister Lisa Nandy told the BBC on Sunday Laura Kuenssberg: “I haven’t had any discussions with the justice secretary about this this morning. What I can tell you is that there was an average of 17 wrongful releases over quite a long period of time during the last government.”
“Under this rising government. This is the 22nd. This is absolutely unacceptable. It was unacceptable before, it is unacceptable now.”
He added: “Even one is too many, and the justice secretary is getting that under control by appointing Dame Lynne Owens, the former director of the National Crime Agency, to make sure we really get this under control, starting with the antiquated paper-based system developed in the 1980s and still in use, building new prisons and making sure we have additional checks so people aren’t released by mistake.”
Earlier this week, a wrongly released sex offender was finally arrested after a nine-day manhunt. On Friday, Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was captured after he was spotted by a member of the public in Islington, north London.
The Algerian national, who was convicted of theft and had previous convictions for indecent exposure, was serving a sentence at HMP Wandsworth in south-west London but was mistakenly released on October 29.
Kaddour-Cherif’s release has piled pressure on Mr Lammy, who has faced criticism for how he handled the prisoner’s mistaken release.
He was criticized when he appeared on Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday for his decision not to address the mistake, despite being briefed on it and being asked repeatedly about accidental releases from prisons.
Following his arrest, the 24-year-old admitted he had “a mountain to climb” to tackle the prison system crisis.
“That’s why I ordered strict new release controls, launched an independent investigation into systemic failures and started overhauling the old paper-based systems still used in some prisons,” the justice secretary said in a statement.
Just a day earlier, another prisoner who was wrongfully released, con artist Billy Smith, 35, surrendered on Thursday.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said the unnamed prisoners exposed the “incompetence of this government”.
“It should not be left to journalists to uncover the truth. [Justice Secretary] “David Lammy must finally reveal how many prisoners were accidentally released and how many are still at large.”
Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat justice spokesman Jess Brown-Fuller said the situation was “a disgrace and an all-encompassing situation” and called for Parliament to be called from prorogation.
“There should be no need for the media to inform the public about the release of prisoners after they were accidentally released,” he said.
“The situation of the government and the minister of justice is serious. The public deserves a full and frank explanation and a rapid investigation that will prevent this from happening.
“Every resource should go to finding these prisoners and warning the public. The Minister of Justice should respond to MPs at the first opportunity by recalling Parliament.”
