Prisons crisis means serious criminals will be mistakenly released again, experts warn
Criminal justice experts have warned that if the government does not launch a “systematic” investigation into how an immigrant sex offender was mistakenly released, another inmate could be mistakenly released from prison.
Hadush Kebatu, who was jailed for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford on Friday in a mistake that sparked widespread condemnation. A prison officer has been suspended while an investigation is ongoing, as the government prepares to announce an independent inquiry.
Experts now claim that errors in the release of prisoners happen “all the time” and are a symptom of the chaos in the prison system, which suffers from overcrowding, lack of investment, understaffing and delays in government decision-making.
Richard Gareside, Director of the Center for Crime and Justice Studies, said: Independent: “People need to be held accountable for mistakes, but the underlying context is that this is a prison system in crisis.
“If they [the government] “If you don’t look systematically at what went wrong, then I suspect it won’t be long before such events happen again.”
Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor described the case as “extremely concerning”, adding: “But I think it is a symptom of the chaos we are seeing within the system where the number of prisoners being released early is increasing.”
He added: “This is a widespread problem in the prison service at the moment and is a structural problem that needs to be solved by the leaders of the prison service and will not just be solved by individual prisons and prison managers.”
Kebatu, an Ethiopian national who was sentenced to 12 months in prison in September, was released instead of being sent to an immigration detention center. He was arrested again in London’s Finsbury Park on Sunday after a two-day manhunt.
His initial arrest for a sexual offense led to protests and counter-protests on the streets of Epping, where he lived in an asylum, and eventually outside hotels housing asylum seekers across the country.
Mr Taylor said “serious errors” had been made at HMP Chelmsford, a “very busy” reception prison, while an inspection at HMP Pentonville and unpublished findings at HMP Birmingham showed “serious anomalies” in sentencing calculations, which also continued there.
“I suspect this is a common situation in many of these very busy Victorian reception prisons that are under tremendous pressure,” the chief inspector of prisons said.
“I think it’s very easy to throw someone under the bus in Chelmsford for this, but this is a systemic problem and the prison service needs to take responsibility for failing to address this problem, which has become much worse over the last few years.”
A consultant from Prison Consultants, who asked not to be named, said the roots of the problems currently facing the prison system go back decades.
He said changes to criminal law and sentencing guidelines had led to more crime and harsher sentences, as well as cuts to prison staff and probation services, as well as an inadequate number of new prisons. He added that the activities that prisoners can do in prisons have also been withdrawn, but there is no maintenance in prisons where mouse and cockroach infestations are common.
“We now have fewer prison officers, more prisoners, more prisoners with nothing to do and lots of rundown prisons,” he said, blaming “a long history of governments ignoring prison services because they don’t win votes.”
He saw a clear link between the neglect of the justice system and what happened with Kebatu, even saying that the incident is not uncommon.
“It’s very clear that this person was released by mistake, it happens all too often,” he said. “The name of an officer under pressure gets mixed up, the numbers get mixed up, they are released by mistake; this happens. This is human error.
“I sympathize with the police; many of them do difficult jobs in very difficult circumstances.”
Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Foundation, suggested the mistake in Kebatu’s case may have been made by the Home Office, suggesting that the need for his deportation may not have been flagged in his paperwork.
“Something went wrong in the communication; both the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Justice have questions to answer,” he said.
The Home Office said it would not comment on speculation about the regulatory process.
According to government figures published in July, 262 prisoners were mistakenly released by March 2025; a 128 percent increase from 115 inmates in the previous 12 months.
Housing minister Steve Reed told broadcasters on Monday morning that he shared their “disappointment and anger”, but insisted there had been no change in policy that had led to the rise under Labor.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said she was “absolutely shocked” by the “serious level of incompetence” that led to Kebatu’s mistaken release.
Meanwhile, the father of Kebatu’s teenage victim said he hoped the sex offender would be “deported immediately”; Mr Lammy said it should happen this week.
