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 Billy Smith, released on the day he received a 45 month prison sentence. The government has promised to get a grip, but today we learned that another 12 prisoners have been released in error in the past three weeks, and that two of them are still at large.
It’s clear from these answers that the Justice Secretary has bought the excuses provided by senior civil servants – excuses which make no sense at all
We didn’t learn this via an official announcement or an answer to a parliamentary question. Instead David Lammy appeared to let the information slip on Sky News this morning, admitting that two offenders were currently at large, before providing more detail on a later BBC interview, where he stated there have been a dozen accidental releases in the past three weeks. Lammy went on to blame a ‘paper-based system’ and ‘human error’, but insisted that accidental releases are declining. On Sky, Lammy insisted that he wouldn’t ‘give a running commentary’ because ‘data has to be properly validated’, pending its publication in July each year.
To be fair to Lammy, his instincts clearly lean towards honest disclosure. But it’s also clear from his answers that he has bought the excuses provided by senior civil servants – excuses which make no sense at all. Last year, approximately five prisoners a week were released in error. His Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service (HMPPS) is a disastrous and chaotic department, led by incompetent officials, as I have often written. But it is entirely implausible that even they need months to ‘validate’ a handful of accidental releases each week.
The Home Office, not renowned as a beacon of efficiency, manages to publish data on small boat arrivals, often numbering in the hundreds, each week. HMPPS must be capable of providing similar weekly data on accidental releases. They are certainly providing this data to ministers, so it seems instead like they don’t want to publish this data because they know it will reveal their incompetence.
Indeed, the department appears to be so reluctant to be open with the public about accidental releases that they’re even not replying on time to Freedom of Information requests. On 25 October I submitted a number of FOIs on releases in error, and prisoners still at large. Under the law public bodies are supposed to respond within 20 working days. As of this morning, 27 working days later, I have received no response.
Robert Jenrick, shadow justice secretary told me that: ‘Calamity Lammy is utterly clueless. 12 prisoners have been mistakenly released since he introduced what he claimed were the “toughest ever checks”. But he won’t be straight with the public and say who is still at large. The public are consistently being put at risk because of his shambolic management. When will this fiasco end?’
Meanwhile Ian Acheson, former prison governor, told me that ‘with 12 more prisoners accidentally released, and at least two still at large, it’s clear that the crisis in HMPPS is only getting worse. The organisation has been gutted and destroyed by years of ideological vandalism and incompetent leadership.’
The lack of disclosure isn’t the only nonsense the Justice Secretary is spouting. His insistence that a ‘fully-digital’ system will solve early releases is a predictable line from those who are familiar with the prison service. Ian Acheson poured scorn on the department’s attempt to blame ‘analogue systems’, describing it as ‘the latest sandbag dragged in front of hapless officials’.
Both Acheson and Jenrick are right. We need transparency. The government should begin reporting weekly release in error figures, along with a running total of how many such people are still at large and how many of them have been convicted of violent and sexual offences. The civil servants won’t want this, because it will expose their failures.
For the truth is this problem won’t be solved by a new IT system. The prison service releases people in error because they have the same name as another inmate. It releases people in error because no one thinks to forward a court order. It releases people in error because it loses track of which prison people are in. It releases people in error because totally different documents are somehow mistaken for one another. Fundamentally, it releases people in error because there is a crisis of competence throughout the system. In the end, this is the responsibility of HMPPS’s leadership. They have shown they are not up to the task. Lammy needs to stop trusting these officials, or he will soon be a failed, former Justice Secretary.
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