England’s prison governors have been called to an urgent meeting with ministers as the government presses for the wrongful release of two more prisoners, including a convicted foreign sex offender.
Alex Davies-Jones, a justice minister, told broadcasters that he was “outraged” about the “inappropriate 22 people who are wrongly released from prisons every month in England and Wales.
He said the “archaic” paper-based system within the prison service was partly to blame and that the government had introduced a “crack team” of digital experts to overhaul it.
He said “reams and reams of paperwork” lead to situations where people with the same name or multiple aliases are mixed up. He also pointed to the impact of chronic spending on the criminal justice system.
Lynne Owens, a retired senior police officer, is conducting a rapid review that Davies-Jones said will report back in a few weeks.
David Lammy, the Justice Secretary, was accused of avoiding the Deputy Prime Minister’s questions on Wednesday about the wrongful release of an asylum seeker.
Robert Jenrick, the Shadow SPIRIT Secretary, said Lammy’s answers to commons questions were a “disgrace” and a “total dereliction of duty”.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “The second sex conviction is infuriating, even with two priates who accidentally came from one of our prisons to make sure it never happened.
“It’s been six days for the prison service to know that it happened and was notified by the Metropolitan Police, who now know on Tuesday night, it’s still not clear.”
Almost immediately after the exchange in the Commons on Wednesday it was revealed that an Algerian National, Brahim Kaddour-strike was released in South London, which was only informed by the London police in Mydropolitan.
Pressed on how Lammy had not told the Commons about it, Davies told the Today program it was “unlikely to introduce anything without us knowing all the facts”. Conservatives falsely suggested that Kaddour-Cherif was an asylum seeker.
Davies-Jones was also asked if Lammy had been shopping for a new suit ahead of his appearance in the Commons on Wednesday, after being cut short by the wrongful dismissal. He said it shouldn’t “get into the weeds whether he’s buying or not”.
After Wednesday, it also emerged that the same prison that 35-year-old William, or Billy, Smith was accidentally released from. Described as white, bald and clean-scaven, he was sentenced to 45 months for a number of fraud offenses on Monday and was released in error the same day.
The mistakes come days after Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian national, was accidentally released from attacking a 14-year-old girl and a woman in a small boat.
Lammy ordered five pages of new checks for prison governors after the release of Kebatu, who was removed from an immigration center.
Labor ministers explained that prisons were in crisis when they came to power. Jenrick admitted the government’s last record on prisons was “poor and unacceptable” but insisted it was working to “keep people working”.
Lammy is due to address the media on Thursday after a Ministerial visit where he will break ground on the new prison.
Mark Fairhurst, the National Chair of the Associence ‘Official Official (Poa), said that there is an average of 22 prison releases by mistake every month. The figure comes from government statistics published in July.
Fairhurst told BBC Breakfast: “The leaders of this service have known about this for over 12 months, but now it’s only in the studetlight.
“The POA is asking for a royal commission, because we know that the entire Criminal Justice System at this time. This is just the Form.