Lammy under fire as wrongful prisoner releases hit record high

JUSTICE SECRETARY David Lammy is facing mounting pressure after it was revealed that 90 violent and sexual offenders were wrongly released from British prisons in the past year – the highest figure on record.

Official data show that 262 prisoners were mistakenly freed in the 12 months to March 2025, more than double the number reported the previous year. Among them were 87 violent offenders, three sex offenders, and dozens jailed for burglary, theft and weapons offences.

Lammy admitted that there was “a mountain to climb” to fix the crisis but said he had “not had all the facts” when he initially refused to disclose the figures to MPs.

“The spike in mistaken releases is unacceptable,” he said. “We’re modernising prison systems – replacing paper with digital tools to cut errors.”

The revelations come amid growing scrutiny of Britain’s overcrowded and overstretched prisons. Two inmates were mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth last week – including Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, who remains at large.

A second prisoner, fraudster William Smith, handed himself back to authorities on Thursday (6).

Both men were released despite Lammy’s announcement of “the toughest ever” new checks, introduced after the accidental release of Ethiopian migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu from HMP Chelmsford two weeks earlier. Kebatu was re-arrested after a two-day manhunt and later deported to Ethiopia.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has so far refused to reveal how many of the mistakenly released inmates remain unaccounted for.

Sources told The Telegraph that Kaddour-Cherif’s case stemmed from an administrative blunder in which a court warrant was sent to the wrong prison. As a result, when staff at Wandsworth applied Lammy’s new checks, there was no record of his detention order, and he was released in error.

Police were not informed until nearly a week later. Lammy has since insisted that the release happened before his reforms came into effect. “We found that the case which caused concern this week occurred before I introduced those checks,” he said.

Opposition parties have accused Lammy of failing to get control of the situation. Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said, “David Lammy refused to provide the information, but thanks to journalists we now know the number of violent prisoners accidentally released has exploded. Calamity Lammy is completely out of his depth and has no plan to fix it.”

The government’s internal investigations have already found widespread weaknesses in record-keeping and coordination between prisons and courts.

A report into the Chelmsford case revealed that the offender management unit had miscalculated Kebatu’s release date, allowing him to leave custody before deportation proceedings were completed. The governor’s report made more than 40 recommendations.

The scale of the problem reflects deeper strains in the prison system. The number of inmates in England and Wales has doubled in 30 years, forcing the government to expand early-release schemes to manage overcrowding.

Alex Davies-Jones, a junior justice minister, blamed the crisis on “14 years of chronic austerity and underfunding” under the previous Tory government. “We inherited a prison estate on the brink, where underinvestment has made human error almost inevitable,” she was quoted as saying.

The Prison Governors’ Association also warned that a “zero-error” system was unrealistic without major investment in staffing, training, and digital infrastructure.

“Achieving a zero-error outcome would demand substantial resources within a system already stretched by competing priorities,” it said. “Successive governments have accepted this level of risk for decades.”

Lammy, who became Justice Secretary two months ago, said he was committed to restoring order and public confidence.

“I understand the anger. We have a mountain to climb, but we are putting in place the systems needed to make sure this doesn’t happen again," the minister was quoted as saying.

(with inputs from Reuters)