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103 Prisoners Mistakenly Released in England and Wales
More than 100 prisoners were mistakenly released in England and Wales since April, with two still at large, as the government pledges £10 million for AI to reduce errors.
- On November 11, Justice Secretary David Lammy told Parliament 91 prisoners had been freed in error between April and October, and he later confirmed 12 more mistaken releases last month, with two still at large.
- Government figures show 262 inmates were mistakenly let out in the year to March 2025, a 128% increase on the 115 released in the previous 12 months.
- System flaws include prisons relying on paper-based system, human error, staffing shortfalls from losing 6,000 officers, and mistakes at HMP Wandsworth, Pentonville, and Belmarsh, with inmate William Smith released same day jailed.
- The Government pledged a 10m investment, launched an independent review led by Dame Lynne Owens, and introduced tougher checks after the Hadush Kebatu case.
- Opposition figures say confusion from the Labour Government's early release scheme caused mistaken releases, while Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick criticised Lammy's inconsistent briefings amid high-profile cases and police manhunts.
Insights by Ground AI
25 Articles
25 Articles
Why won’t Lammy tell us about prisoners released by mistake?
It’s now over six weeks since Hadush Kebatu’s ‘release in error’ sparked a two day manhunt, and highlighted our prison system’s disastrous habit of regularly releasing inmates who should remain in jail. Since then we’ve heard about the accidental releases of Kaddour-Cherif, a prolific criminal from Algeria who overstayed a visa six years ago, and
·London, United Kingdom
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources25
Leaning Left6Leaning Right6Center4Last UpdatedBias Distribution38% Left, 37% Right
Bias Distribution
- 38% of the sources lean Left, 37% of the sources lean Right
38% Left
L 38%
C 25%
R 37%
Factuality
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