Three prisoners released by mistake every week since April, new figures show
A total of 91 prisoners were mistakenly released between April 1 and October 31 this year, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Justice released on Tuesday; This equates to three times a week.
Justice Secretary David Lammy will face MPs in the House of Commons on Tuesday as the government faces mounting pressure over a series of high-profile revelations, including by Epping sex offender Hadush Kebatu.
In the following weeks, an Algerian sex offender and a fraudster from HMP Wandsworth were also accidentally released, leading to a double manhunt.
According to government figures, some 262 prisoners were mistakenly released by March 2025; There was a 128 percent increase from the 115 inmates in the previous 12 months.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said he would press Mr Lammy to reveal how many prisoners had been accidentally released since April 1 this year, how many were still at large and how many were violent or sexual offenders.
Mr Jenrick said the accidental release of Kebatu and two prisoners sparked a manhunt and was “just the tip of the iceberg” and that the British public deserved to see “the full picture”.
Mr Lammy admitted on Friday he had “a mountain to climb” to deal with the crisis in the prison system.
Lord James Timpson, the prisons minister, said on Monday that it was not possible to “quickly fix” faulty releases and that “it will take time to fix this”.
While Ethiopian national Kebatu was later deported, Algerian national Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was arrested on Friday and was understood to be in the process of being deported.
Billy Smith, who was accidentally released from Wandsworth on Monday after being sentenced to 45 months in prison for multiple fraud offences, also handed himself in on Thursday.
Following Kebatu’s release from HMP Chelmsford on October 24, stronger security controls for prisons were announced and an independent investigation into mistaken releases was launched.
It turned out that three prisoners who were released by mistake were on the run.
Over the weekend, it was reported that a total of four such criminals were mistakenly released, two in June this year and two in 2024.
On Monday, sources within the Government claimed that one of them had been detained.
But in a sign of the behind-the-scenes crisis in detention, it became clear that he was never actually released by mistake and was miscounted among those released.
It is unclear whether the miscounted prisoner remained in custody or was released at the right time.
More to follow…
