🔴 Lammy’s PRISONS IN CHAOS: 12 MORE FREED IN ERROR - 2 STILL AT LARGE
Justice Secretary David Lammy has confirmed that twelve more prisoners have been released in error across England and Wales in the past three weeks, with two individuals still at large as police continue their searches.
The disclosure brings the total number of mistaken releases since April to at least 103, following 91 cases recorded between April and October, and comes only weeks after Mr Lammy assured Parliament that enhanced safeguards were being introduced to prevent further incidents.
Speaking to broadcasters, the Cabinet minister acknowledged a recent “spike” in accidental releases but insisted the trend is now on a “downward trajectory”. He attributed persistent errors to the prison service’s reliance on a paper-based system and repeated that only a fully digital replacement will eliminate human error entirely.
Mr Lammy said he had received assurances that the two outstanding escapees are neither violent offenders nor registered sex offenders, though he declined to provide further details on operational grounds.
The latest wave of erroneous releases began after 11 November, the date on which Mr Lammy delivered a Commons statement outlining new measures, including a mandatory “clear checklist” for prison governors and a £10 million investment in artificial-intelligence tools designed to flag calculation mistakes before inmates walk free.
Official figures show that mistaken releases surged by 128 per cent in the most recent reporting year, rising from 115 in 2023-24 to 262 in 2024-25, against a backdrop of just over 57,000 lawful end-of-custody releases – itself a 13 per cent increase on the previous twelve months.
The errors encompass both prisoners freed prematurely and, less commonly, those detained beyond their lawful release date.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick described the repeated failures as evidence of “shambolic management” that is “consistently putting the public at risk” and demanded to know when the fiasco will end.
Liberal Democrat justice spokeswoman Jess Brown-Fuller called the situation “utterly unacceptable” and urged both the Government and the Prison Service to accept full responsibility and guarantee no repetition.
The issue first attracted intense scrutiny when Hadush Kebatu, convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman while accommodated in Home Office asylum housing in Epping, was accidentally freed; he was recaptured within 48 hours and has since been deported to Ethiopia.
Two further high-profile cases swiftly followed: William Smith, who voluntarily surrendered, and Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, who was rearrested by police.
Mr Lammy has commissioned Dame Lynne Owens, former Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, to conduct an urgent review into the circumstances surrounding Kebatu’s release and the wider pattern of administrative failures across the prison estate; her report is due in February 2026.
Separately, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, warned in October that the rising tide of mistaken releases is symptomatic of deeper systemic dysfunction.
He highlighted chronic staff shortages – exacerbated by the loss of 6,000 prison officers during the previous Conservative administration – combined with inexperienced personnel managing unmanageable caseloads and frequent policy changes, including successive early-release schemes introduced by both the last government and the present one.
Mr Taylor also noted heavy reliance on overseas recruits, particularly from West Africa, whose continued presence is now threatened by tightened Home Office visa rules.
Acknowledging the scale of the challenge, Mr Lammy told interviewers: “I want to bring it down but we have got a mountain to climb.”
Critics, however, point out that the sharpest acceleration in errors has occurred under the current Labour administration, with the Prison Service still grappling with the legacy of overcrowding measures and an outdated administrative backbone that ministers have known about for years.
