At least four prisoners freed in error still at large, BBC told

According to the BBC, at least four prisoners who were released in error are now on parole. These are among 262 prisoners in England and Wales who were mistakenly released in the year to March, up from 115 the previous year. The latest reports come as the government is under increasing pressure after a string of high-profile cases of prisoners being wrongly released. On Friday, an Algerian sex offender who was mistakenly released from jail was arrested by police. Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was one of two men to be released separately from jail in the same week. Both individuals are now back in jail after William Smith surrendered himself on Thursday.

Their release came after migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu, who arrived in the United Kingdom on a small boat, was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford in Essex late last month.

The overwhelming majority of criminals released by mistake are quickly returned to jail, and we will do everything we can to locate the few remaining in the area.

But there has been a lot of criticism of the government's handling of the situation. The incompetence of this government is shown by the unaccounted prisoners, according to shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick.

It shouldn't be left to journalists to find the truth. David Lammy, the Justice Minister, has to admit that how many prisoners were mistakenly released and how many are still on the loose and how some are still missing.

Every resourcemust go into finding the prisoners, a Liberal Democrats spokesperson said. This is a disgrace and an omnishambles.I shouldn't have to use the media to inform the public that prisoners are still on the loose after accidental release,Jess Brown-Fuller said.We inherited a prison system in crisis, and I'm appalled at the rate of errors that this is causing,Lammy said in a tweet.I'm determined to solve this problem, but there is a mountain to scale that cannot be achieved overnight.

I've ordered new tough release checks, ordered an independent inquiry into systemic flaws, and started investigating archaic paper-based methods still used in some jails. In addition to the four people who were mistakenly released, it has been discovered that another man is also on the loose after being arrested from an open jail. Ola Abimbola, who is serving a 21-year prison term for offences including kidnap, GBH, and carrying an offensive weapon in public, was moved to open conditions in September and HMP Ford was suspended on October 10.

The small number of criminals eligible for transfer to open prison are subjected to a stringent, comprehensive risk assessment, and those who violate the rules will be immediately returned to he infamous jail. "Abimbola, who was detained in December 2018, was found by Sussex Police who was jailed in December 2018.

Four prisoners are now on the loose after being mistakenly released just hours after Kaddour-Cherif was detained. Just on Friday morning, an Algerian national was discovered by a member of the public in London's Finsbury Park neighborhood. In November 2024, he was found guilty of indecent exposure in connection with an incident in March of that year. He was issued an 18-month community order and was placed on the sex offenders' registry for five years. He had been let out of HMP Wandsworth in south London on October 29th, but police said they were not told until Tuesday. According to reports, Kaddour-Cherif entered the UK legally on a visitor's visa in 2019, but the visitor''s passport was not renewed and was in the first stages of the deportation process. He was released the day after being found not guilty of breaching the sex offenders' registry's guidelines, but he was also charged with other criminal offences and may have remained in detention. According to the prison officers' reps, a clerical mistake meant there was no warrant from the court to arrest him, and he was released. It came as a result of a string of lawsuits and court appearances dating back two years. On Thursday, William Smith, the second man released from HMP Wandsworth in the last week, returned to HMP Tanning on Thursday. He had been released on Monday but had been sent to prison earlier that day.

For many years, jails have been in a state of emergency. The number of prisoners has also increased, with the number of employees not keeping up with the increasing number of inmates increasing. Last year, only a hundred or so places were stocked in male jails. This triggered the government's emergency release program, under the assumption that some prisoners would be released after serving 40% of their fixed term term rather than the usual 50%. It was designed to reduce overcrowding, but under the scheme, nearly 40,000 prisoners have been released. However, this has also had repercussions on the number of incorrectly published news. With estimates indicating that the prison population will continue to increase, the government has promised to build more prisons to reduce overcrowding, but this will take time.