Justice Secretary orders urgent review after prison blunders

Reporter
National Press Corporation(NPC)
United Kingdom—At least four prisoners who were mistakenly released from custody in England and Wales remain at large, the BBC has learned.

The cases are among 262 prisoners who were released in error in the year to March — a sharp rise from 115 in the previous year.The revelation comes as the government faces mounting criticism over a series of high-profile blunders involving prisoners being wrongly freed.

An Algerian sex offender, Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, was arrested on Friday after being mistakenly released earlier in the week. Another man, William Smith, who was also released in error from the same prison, handed himself in on Thursday. Both are now back in custody.

Their cases follow that of Hadush Kebatu, a migrant sex offender who entered the UK on a small boat and was wrongly released from HMP Chelmsford in Essex late last month.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said:“The vast majority of offenders released by mistake are quickly brought back to prison, and we will do everything we can to work with the police to capture the few still in the community.”

However, the government’s handling of the issue has sparked widespread political backlash.Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said the situation demonstrated “the incompetence of this government”.

“It shouldn’t be left to reporters to uncover the facts. Justice Secretary David Lammy must come clean about how many prisoners have been accidentally released and how many are still at large,” he added.

A Liberal Democrats spokesperson said that “every resource” must be deployed to find the missing prisoners.“This is a disgrace and an omnishambles,” said Jess Brown-Fuller. “It should not take the media to inform the public that prisoners are at large after accidental release.”

Responding to the criticism, Justice Secretary David Lammy said:“We inherited a prison system in crisis, and I’m appalled at the rate of mistaken releases this is causing. I’m determined to get to grips with the problem, but there is a mountain to climb.”

He added that tougher release checks have been ordered, along with an independent investigation into systemic failures and an overhaul of outdated paper-based systems still used in some prisons.