By Ben Kerrigan-
London, UK – The UK government has revealed that a total of 91 prisoners were released in error between April 1 and October 31 of this year, a period of just seven months. The data, published by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) for England and Wales, has intensified pressure on Justice Secretary David Lammy and highlights what critics call a “security crisis” within the prison system.
The figures mean an average of approximately three inmates were mistakenly released per week during that time frame.
Details of the Figures
The MoJ figures cover any case where a prisoner was released when they should have remained in custody, and the error was not the result of a deliberate action by the individual or a third party. The data is not directly comparable to annual statistics, which for the year to March 2025 showed 262 mistaken releases—a 128% increase on the previous 12 months.
The Ministry of Justice noted that figures for recent months may be subject to change and have historically tended to be revised upwards.
High-Profile Cases and Mounting Pressure
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The release of these statistics follows several high-profile accidental releases in recent weeks that sparked police manhunts and public outcry:
Hadush Kebatu: An Ethiopian national jailed for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman, Kebatu was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford in October instead of being transferred to an immigration detention centre. He was later recaptured and deported.
HMP Wandsworth incidents: Two men were mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth in separate incidents within a single week. Convicted fraudster Billy Smith handed himself in, while Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was also recaptured after a manhunt.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick had called for the government to provide the public with the full picture on the scale of the errors. In response to the crisis, Justice Secretary David Lammy has acknowledged there is a “mountain to climb” to fix the systemic issues in the prison system, and stronger security checks and an independent investigation have been announced.
Reasons for these errors can include misplaced warrants, sentence miscalculations, and discharging the wrong person during escort, issues that the government has previously stated can be made worse by prison overcrowding. As of the latest reports, a small number of the mistakenly released prisoners are still understood to be at large.
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