Wrongly released prisoners prompt urgent government meeting

The government has called an urgent meeting of prison governors in England following two further cases of wrongly released prisoners, one of whom is a convicted sex offender.

Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones described the situation as “unacceptable”, revealing that an average of 22 prisoners are mistakenly freed every month across England and Wales. She said a mix of outdated paper-based systems and chronic underfunding had left prisons vulnerable to administrative errors.

Speaking to broadcasters, she said:

“I am furious about this situation. The archaic paper systems and reams of paperwork have created circumstances where individuals with the same name or multiple aliases are mixed up. That is simply not good enough.”

Davies-Jones confirmed that a “crack team” of digital experts had been deployed to overhaul the system and introduce urgent checks across the prison network.

Repeated failures spark political backlash

The fresh controversy comes days after an Algerian national, Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was wrongly released from Wandsworth Prison in south London. Convicted of sexual offences and living in the UK illegally, he was freed last Wednesday, but the Metropolitan Police were not informed for six days.

Soon after, William “Billy” Smith, 35, convicted of multiple fraud offences, was mistakenly released from the same prison just hours after sentencing.

The two incidents follow the earlier wrongful release of Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian national convicted of sexual assault, who was freed from Chelmsford Prison and meant to be transferred to immigration detention.

Justice Secretary David Lammy has faced criticism in the Commons after failing to inform MPs immediately about the latest incidents. Conservative MP Robert Jenrick called his handling of the situation “a disgrace” and a “total dereliction of duty”.

Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Jenrick added:

“The second convicted sex offender, an illegal migrant, has been released accidentally, despite the Justice Secretary assuring Parliament that robust checks had been put in place. It took six days for the authorities to even realise.”

Rapid review under way

Davies-Jones said a rapid review led by Lynne Owens, a retired senior police officer, will report back within weeks. The Justice Ministry has already introduced five new pages of checks for governors to sign off before any prisoner release.

She rejected claims that Lammy had deliberately withheld information, saying it would have been “inappropriate” to confirm details before all facts were established.

Meanwhile, Mark Fairhurst, national chair of the Prison Officers’ Association, said the problem extended far beyond individual errors:

“There are around 22 wrongful releases every month. The leaders of this service have known about this for over a year. We’re calling for a royal commission to address what’s gone wrong across the entire criminal justice system — prisons, probation, courts and police.”

Fairhurst warned that the crisis was a symptom of years of neglect, describing the system as being “in complete meltdown.”

For context on government prison management and digital reform, visit the Ministry of Justice official site.

A system under strain

Lammy is expected to make a public statement following a visit to a new prison site later this week. The government has been accused of firefighting rather than fixing systemic issues that have plagued prisons for years.

The Justice Ministry said it remains committed to reforming the service, but the scale of human error now exposed has deepened pressure on ministers to act.

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