London, November 12, 2025 – In a stark admission that has ignited fierce political debate, Justice Secretary David Lammy confirmed to Parliament that three prisoners remain at large after being mistakenly released from UK jails, with one evading recapture since August 2024. The revelation, delivered during a tense session in the House of Commons, underscores a deepening crisis in England's prison system, where administrative errors have freed 91 inmates between April 1 and October 31 this year alone. Lammy, who doubles as Deputy Prime Minister, described the incidents as "symptomatic of a prison system under horrendous strain," vowing urgent reforms including a £10 million investment in AI-driven technology to prevent future blunders.
The three fugitives highlighted by Lammy represent a fraction of a broader epidemic of mishaps. The first, a convicted Class B drug offender, slipped through the cracks on August 15, 2024, during a routine administrative review at an unnamed Category B facility. Despite nationwide alerts, the individual—whose identity remains withheld for operational reasons—has evaded police sweeps for over 15 months, prompting concerns from victims' advocacy groups about prolonged risks to public safety. The second escapee, jailed for failing to surrender to bail in December 2024, was erroneously discharged from a Midlands prison due to a clerical mix-up in court liaison records. Serving a short sentence for administrative non-compliance, this offender was last traced to the West Midlands but has since gone underground. The third, convicted of aggravated burglary in 2023, was freed on June 12, 2025, from HMP Leeds after a sentence calculation error overlooked an outstanding warrant. Authorities believe this individual, in his late 30s, may have fled to Scotland, complicating cross-border pursuits.
These cases are not isolated anomalies but part of an alarming trend. Ministry of Justice data reveals that 262 prisoners were accidentally released across England and Wales in the 12 months to March 2025—a staggering 128% increase from the 115 errors recorded the previous year. Of these, 233 stemmed from prison-side mistakes, such as misplaced warrants or misread expiry dates, while 29 occurred in court settings due to faulty digital handovers. Notably, 90 involved violent or sexual offenders, amplifying fears that the errors are not merely bureaucratic but pose tangible threats to communities already reeling from rising crime rates. Lammy emphasized that while the vast majority—over 99%—of the 57,000 annual releases proceed without issue, the spikes since 2021 demand accountability. "I'm clear that we must bear down on these numbers," he told MPs, attributing the rise to "an archaic system" inherited from years of underinvestment.
The government's response includes a six-month, £10 million pilot program deploying artificial intelligence for real-time sentence verification and automated cross-checks with court databases. "We are putting in new guardrails... with tougher new checks, reviewing specific failings, and modernising prison processes and joint working with courts," Lammy stated. This initiative, set to launch in early 2026, will integrate AI tools to flag anomalies in prisoner records, supplemented by enhanced training for over 1,000 frontline staff. Lammy framed the measures as a direct fulfillment of public expectations: "That is what victims deserve. That is what the public expects, and this government will do what it takes to protect the public." However, critics, including Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick, dismissed the plan as "too little, too late," accusing Labour of inheriting a "total shambles" while failing to disclose full recapture rates. Jenrick demanded transparency on the 91 recent errors, labeling the ongoing fugitives "the tip of the iceberg."
This scrutiny intensified following a cluster of high-profile incidents at HMP Wandsworth, London's notorious Victorian-era prison. On October 29, 2025, 24-year-old Algerian national Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, a registered sex offender convicted of indecent exposure and trespass with intent to steal, was erroneously freed after staff overlooked his active remand status. Kaddour-Cherif, who had overstayed a visitor visa and faced burglary charges, vanished into north London, prompting a six-day manhunt. He was apprehended on November 7 in Finsbury Park after a member of the public recognized him from a Metro newspaper photograph and alerted authorities. Bodycam footage captured his detention, where he initially denied his identity before being returned to custody. Days earlier, on November 3, 35-year-old fraudster William "Billy" Smith was mistakenly released the same afternoon he received a 45-month sentence at Croydon Crown Court for multiple scams. Smith, who had appeared via video link from Wandsworth, surrendered voluntarily on November 6, waving to media cameras in a dramatic handover that drew widespread ridicule online.
These blunders at Wandsworth—described by inspectors as "severely overcrowded" with chronic understaffing—echo the outrage sparked by the October 24 release of Hadush Kebatu from HMP Chelmsford. The 28-year-old Ethiopian migrant, convicted in September 2025 of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and another woman just weeks after arriving by small boat, was slated for deportation but instead walked free due to a handover failure between prison and immigration officials. Kebatu, housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping during his asylum claim, triggered violent protests outside migrant accommodations nationwide upon his escape. Eyewitnesses reported him returning to Chelmsford prison "four or five times" in a confused state, only to be redirected to the train station by overworked staff. Rearrested two days later in Dalston, north London, via CCTV leads, he was deported to Ethiopia on October 29 with a £500 repatriation payment—a move Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood hailed as ensuring "our streets are safer." Lammy, who called himself "appalled" by the rate of errors, suspended a discharging officer and ordered an independent probe led by a former Met deputy commissioner, expected to conclude in eight weeks.
Beneath these headlines lies a systemic rot exacerbated by chronic overcrowding and understaffing. England and Wales' prisons, housing 88,500 inmates against a capacity of 79,000 as of October 2025, operate at 112% occupancy, with many facilities cramming two prisoners into cells designed for one. HMP Wandsworth, a Category B men's jail built for 1,500 but holding over 1,700, saw inspectors in 2024 decry "sustained decline" where staff "simply did not understand their role" amid inexperienced hires and outdated IT systems reliant on paper logs. The Prison Officers' Association warns that relentless strain—fueled by 2,823 officer departures in the year to June 2025, 56% with under three years' experience—breeds errors. Mark Fairhurst, POA national chair, noted: "Prisons are underfunded, understaffed, and operating under relentless strain," with mental ill-health now the top cause of absences, logging over 10,500 assaults in the year to March.
The crisis traces back to policy failures across administrations. The previous Conservative government's 2024 emergency early-release scheme, aimed at averting a total collapse, inadvertently freed 37 inmates due to repealed legislation glitches. Labour's response includes building six new prisons for 20,000 additional places, with 6,000 operational by end-2025, but experts like former HMP Brixton governor John Podmore argue that without addressing remand overuse—where 40% of inmates await trial—the cycle persists. Andrew Slaughter, Labour MP and Justice Committee chair, pins the blame on "starved investment" leading to "chaos and instability."
Public reaction has been visceral. On X (formerly Twitter), posts decrying "Lammy's lags" garnered over 10,000 likes, with users labeling the system "an absolute joke." Victims' families, including the father of Kebatu's teenage survivor, expressed feeling "massively let down by the justice system." Rosena Allin-Khan, MP for Tooting (encompassing Wandsworth), voiced constituents' "deep concern," urging immediate answers.
As Parliament recesses briefly, pressure mounts on Lammy to deliver results. An independent investigation into Wandsworth's lapses, coupled with the AI rollout, offers hope, but with projections of 95,000-114,000 inmates by 2027, experts warn the precipice looms. "One mistaken release is one too many," Lammy reiterated, but for a nation on edge, the tally of errors—now at least 353 since April 2024—demands more than words. The fight to reclaim control of Britain's prisons is far from over, with public safety hanging in the balance.
