A total of 91 prisoners were freed by mistake between the start of April and the end of October, the latest Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures show.
The figures come as ministers face mounting pressure over a series of high-profile manhunts, with Justice Secretary David Lammy admitting on Friday there is a “mountain to climb” to tackle the crisis in the prison system.
Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was arrested on Friday after a police search following his release from HMP Wandsworth in south London last week, which Scotland Yard said officers only found out about on Tuesday.
His recapture was partly down to investigative work by Sky’s national correspondent, Tom Parmenter, who tracked Kaddour-Cherif down to Finsbury Park in north London before he handed himself in to police.
Convicted fraudster Billy Smith, 35, handed himself back in on Thursday after being accidentally freed from the same jail on Monday.
The number of these types of errors has risen recently, with 262 instances between March 2024 and March 2025 – a 128% increase on 115 in the previous 12 months.
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