In a significant warning, a former prison governor has cautioned the public to brace for more prison release scandals. This alert comes as recent figures reveal that, on average, five inmates were mistakenly allowed to walk free each week last year.
The official statistics indicate a troubling trend with a record 262 erroneous releases reported for the 2024-25 period. Alarmingly, among these mistakenly released individuals were 87 violent offenders, alongside three who had been convicted of sexual offences.
Vanessa Frake-Harris MBE voiced her concerns to the Mail, pointing fingers at Labour’s early release scheme. She described the system as a “minefield,” noting it has significantly complicated sentence calculations and effectively doubled the workload for prison staff.
This issue came to a head recently when Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, aged 24, was finally recaptured after being mistakenly freed from HMP Wandsworth. His release, which lasted nine days before his re-arrest, ignited a fierce political controversy.
Justice Minister David Lammy faced harsh criticism, with detractors labeling his response to the situation as both “cowardly” and “incompetent.”
Adding to the concerns, another mistakenly released prisoner from the same facility, 35-year-old fraudster William Smith, chose to surrender himself to authorities on Thursday morning, highlighting the ongoing challenges within the prison system.
The number of prisoners let out in error rocketed by more than 200 per cent in 2024-25 compared to 2023-24, when there were 87 incidents.
Yet for violent criminals and sex offenders, the rise was even steeper, with last year’s figure of 90 releases eight times the 11 seen in 2023-24.
Ms Frake-Harris said the early release scheme introduced by Labour in September 2024 – which followed a previous programme brought in by the Tories – had increased the risk of errors.
Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was finally re-arrested on Friday after being accidentally freed from HMP Wandsworth nine days before
‘Sentence calculations are a minefield, and this scheme doubled the workload and made sentence calculations much more difficult,’ she said.
‘Bear in mind the computer system introduced was not fit for purpose and now the calculations are having to be done manually – meaning someone with a pen, paper and a calculator.
‘That said, these accidental releases are just a small part in a huge number of disasters affecting our prisons ranging from staff shortages and inexperienced staff to overcrowding, drugs, corruption, increasing violence and poor access to work.
‘Knee-jerk reactions from ministers, like introducing five-page release documents which some governors say takes almost a day to do, has just made staff even more stretched and under pressure.’
The releases at Wandsworth follow numerous warnings from inspectors about the regime at the jail.
One unannounced inspection in May 2024 found staff were unable to confirm how many prisoners were off their units and how many were locked up, and they ‘could not be confident that all prisoners were accounted for during the working day’.
Wandsworth has seen a string of scandals, including a high-profile escape by Iranian spy Daniel Khalife and a video showing a warden, Linda De Sousa Abreu, having sex with an inmate.
Accidental releases are not the only reason for violent offenders evading custody, with others skipping bail or absconding from open prisons.
Ola Abimbola, a foreign national, walked out of the open prison HMP Ford on October 16 and has not been seen since.
A second inmate released in error by the same prison – 35-year-old fraudster William Smith – handed himself in on Thursday morning
The 36-year-old is currently serving a 21-year sentence for offences including kidnap, GBH and possession of an offensive weapon in public.
He is yet to return to the prison, with Sussex Police saying it is working with partners to find him.
Days after Abimbola’s escape, Thames Valley Police reported that a ‘vicious’ East London drug dealer had absconded from HMP Spring Hill in Buckinghamshire.
Osei Kuffour, 36, had been serving 25 years for attempted murder after shooting a woman in the face when he failed to return to the category D prison in October.
He was arrested the next day by police after warning members of the public not to approach him.
Another inmate Anton Newell, 36, who is originally from Isleworth in Middlesex, absconded from the same open prison in June and it remains unclear whether he remains at large.
Mark Drury, a member of the Prison Governors’ Association, warned there had been a ‘sudden’ rise in absconders from open prisons in recent years, adding that there is an ‘increased risk to the public’.
He explained that, due to attempts to tackle prison overcrowding, ‘there are a large number of prisoners in open prisons now that we would not have considered suitable two or three years ago’.
Meanwhile, Brahim Kaddour-Cherif is now back in custody after being re-arrested by police in Finsbury Park, north London.
The accidental releases at Wandsworth follow numerous warnings from inspectors about the regime at the jail
After confirming the Algerian had been rearrested, David Lammy said: ‘We inherited a prison system in crisis, and I’m appalled at the rate of releases in error this is causing.
‘I’m determined to grip this problem, but there is a mountain to climb which cannot be done overnight.’
The Justice Secretary was criticised for refusing to confirm the criminal had been freed during exchanges at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
He was also attacked for not returning to Parliament later to give a statement on the details of what had happened.
Alex Davies-Jones, a junior minister at the Ministry of Justice, was left to be quizzed about the scandal during a round of TV and radio interviews on Thursday morning.
The issue of accidental releases entered the public consciousness last month when Ethiopian migrant Hadush Kebatu was mistakenly freed from HMP Chelmsford.
Kebatu, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping, Essex, was freed in error on October 24.
He was arrested in north London three days later and was only finally deported after being paid £500 to go quietly.
