Nearly 100 prisoners freed by mistake over seven months this year | News UK

Three prisoners who were mistakenly released are still at large, the Justice Secretary has confirmed, with one free since August last year.

David Lammy set out the latest statistics on accidental releases as the government faces mounting pressure following a series of high-profile errors.

A total of 91 prisoners were unintentionally freed between April 1 and October 31 this year, Lammy told MPs.

He said: ‘I’m clear that we must bear down on these numbers, which are symptomatic of a prison system under horrendous strain.’

The criminal who remains on the run after being released in August 2024 was in prison for a class B drug offence.

Another, freed in December last year, was in prison for failing to surrender to the police, while the third was released in June this year and had been serving time for aggravated burglary.

Lammy, who also serves as Deputy Prime Minister, said up to £10 million over six months would be used to introduce AI and other technology into the system in an effort to help staff cut down mistakes.

He said: ‘We are putting in new guardrails around an archaic system, with tougher new checks, reviewing specific failings and modernising prison processes and joint working with courts – all to bear down on the increase in mistakes.

‘That is what victims deserve. That is what the public expects, and this government will do what it takes to protect the public.’

It comes as two other men were accidentally let out of HMP Wandsworth last week.

Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, a 24-year-old Algerian man, was found in Islington and arrested last week, following a tip off from the member of the public after they recognised him from a Metro newspaper.

Just a few days after he was released, William ‘Billy’ Smith was also accidentally freed from HMP Wandsworth.

A few days later Smith voluntarily handed himself back in.

The accidental releases happened just days after migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford in Essex.

Kebatu, a former asylum seeker from Ethiopia, became one of the most notorious sex offenders in the country when his case sparked protests outside the Bell Hotel in Epping.

Lammy previously said he was ‘appalled at the rate of releases in error’.

Stronger security checks were announced for prisons and an independent investigation was launched into releases in error after Kebatu was accidentally freed on October 24.

But prison guards have revealed to Metro this mistake is much more common than the public realise.

They said most prisons are ‘overcrowded but understaffed’ meaning it is hard to spot such serious errors. 

One officer told Metro: ‘It is a category B jail, there will be prisoners going in and out everyday for court dates and visits, and they are so understaffed.’

‘It is just part of a wider issue of prison funding.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

MORE: Harry Pitman’s family says ‘justice has been done’ after teen killer jailed

MORE: The story behind the ‘goddess of wealth’ who was the mastermind of £5,500,000,000 crypto fraud

MORE: Two jailed after £5,500,000,000 Bitcoin fraud case