By Nick Eardley and Sima Kotecha, BBC
At least four prisoners who were mistakenly released are still at large, the BBC has been told. They are among 262 people in England and Wales who were accidentally freed in the year to March, up from 115 the previous year.
The figures come as ministers face growing scrutiny after several high-profile errors. An Algerian national, Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, who was released in error from HMP Wandsworth, was arrested on Friday after being spotted in Finsbury Park. He and another man, William Smith, were separately released from the same prison in the same week; Smith handed himself back to custody on Thursday and both are now back in prison.
These cases followed the mistaken release of migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu from HMP Chelmsford late last month, adding to concerns about release procedures.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said the vast majority of offenders released by mistake are quickly returned to custody and that the department will work with police to capture the few still in the community. But opposition politicians criticised the government for what they called systemic failures.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said the unaccounted prisoners exposed ‘the incompetence of this government’ and called on Justice Secretary David Lammy to disclose how many prisoners remain at large. A Liberal Democrat spokesperson, Jess Brown-Fuller, said ‘every resource’ must be used to find them and described the situation as a disgrace.
Mr Lammy said he had inherited a prison system in crisis and was appalled by the rate of releases in error. He said he had ordered tougher release checks, commissioned an independent investigation into systemic failures, and begun modernising outdated paper-based systems used in some prisons.
Details on Kaddour-Cherif
Kaddour-Cherif was convicted of indecent exposure in November 2024 for an incident earlier that year and was given an 18-month community order and placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years. He was released from HMP Wandsworth on 29 October, though police say they were not told until the following Tuesday.
He is understood to have entered the UK on a visitor visa in 2019, later overstayed and was in the early stages of deportation proceedings. He had been released the day after being found not guilty of breaching requirements of the sex offenders’ register, but was still facing other charges and should have remained in custody. Prison officers’ representatives say a clerical error meant no warrant was in place to hold him.
William Smith had been freed on Monday after being sentenced earlier that day but returned to custody voluntarily on Thursday.
Wider context
Prisons in England and Wales have faced rising population pressures for several years while staff numbers have not kept pace. Last summer there were only around a hundred or so places available in male prisons, prompting an emergency release scheme under which some inmates are freed after serving 40% of fixed-term sentences rather than the usual 50%. Almost 40,000 inmates have been released under that scheme, which officials say was necessary to ease overcrowding but which critics argue has increased the risk of mistakes.
The government has pledged to build more prison places to relieve pressure, but ministers say that will take time. In the meantime the Justice Secretary has promised reforms aimed at preventing further erroneous releases and an independent probe into how the failures occurred.
Additional reporting by George Wright.
