Prisons to carry out extra checks before releasing inmates

Prison governors in England and Wales will need to give assurances that enhanced checks are carried out before prisoners are released from Monday.

The government has introduced new mandatory procedures after an immigrant was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford on Friday and subsequently re-arrested.

Justice Minister David Lammy will announce the nature of an independent inquiry in Parliament on Monday into how asylum seeker Hadush Kebatu was wrongly released.

Senior prison staff told the BBC that the new controls will only increase workloads and put more pressure on a system that is already struggling to cope.

A prison officer has been suspended pending an investigation, but a senior prison official told BBC News the discharge was “probably due to a series of errors due to overwork by staff and inadequate resources”.

Kebatu was arrested in the Finsbury Park area of ​​north London at 08:30 GMT on Sunday, ending a 48-hour manhunt that began after he was mistakenly released from prison.

Kebatu, who was sentenced last month for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman while living in an asylum hotel in Epping, was about to be deported when he was mistakenly released by prison staff.

His first arrest in July sparked protests outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, where he has been living since arriving in England on a small boat.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said an investigation was already underway, adding: “We must make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Lammy said Kebatu would be deported within this week.

A report from Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service said 262 prisoners were mistakenly released between April 2024 and March 2025, when the number of prisoners in England and Wales was 115 in the previous 12 months.

Asked why unfair eviction figures were rising, Lammy, who is also deputy prime minister, said the Labor government had “inherited a crumbling system”. [from the Conservatives]”.

Health Minister Wes Streeting told the BBC on Sunday that the arrest was a “huge relief” and that Kebatu “will now be deported”.

He added: “The justice minister has ordered an investigation into how a dangerous man who should have been deported was released onto our streets.

“This study is ongoing, and we will be open and transparent with the public about what went wrong and what we will do about it.”

He has previously said the Prison Service is under enormous pressure “but even in those circumstances that does not explain or excuse the release of people on our streets who have no business there”.

Former Conservative Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said the investigation was needed to “learn lessons” and suggested the incident was symptomatic of wider problems in the prison system.

He told BBC Breakfast on Sunday: “The entire annual budget of the Ministry of Justice is spent by the Department for Work and Pensions in two weeks.

“My ongoing plea is to try to ensure that the prison service gets the resources it needs to make sure we recruit and retain people with the skills and experience to ensure these problems do not happen.”

Liberal Democrat Chelmsford MP Marie Goldman said Kebatu “must be deported now” and also pressed for a national inquiry.

UK Reform leader Nigel Farage said the incident showed the UK’s “once trusted institutions”, including the police and prisons, were “falling apart before our eyes”.