Record number of inmates released from prison by mistake

Bungling jail bosses have admitted that they released a record number of prisoners by mistake last year – including sex offenders, violent criminals and drug dealers.

Most of the cases involved an inmate being released too soon, but in one case last year prison guards let out the wrong person altogether.

Figures from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) show there were a record 87 cases last year in which people were accidentally let out too early.

Across the past five years, the total of inmates who were accidentally given their freedom too soon has reached 308.

Of those, at least 41 were serving sentences for offences of violence, another seven were sex offenders and 21 were serving time for drugs crimes.

Kevin Moore, a retired detective chief superintendent, said: “This issue is worryingly becoming more and more frequent.

“I have a view that with anything that once is a mistake, more than once is downright carelessness. There should be fail safe checks put in place to ensure that these occurrences just don’t happen.

“Such errors are putting the public at unnecessary risk and this is totally unacceptable when such incidents are completely avoidable.”

The bulk of the inmates being released by mistake are convicted criminals who are set free too soon because of a paperwork error. This is typically when officials miscalculate the date when the inmate was is to be set free.

But in a total of seven cases over the last five years the wrong prisoner altogether was released because guards became confused over names.

In 2008 Terence Clegg, who was being held on remand at Durham prison, was released instead of his father, also called Terence Clegg, who was being held at the same jail.

In 2005 a criminal killed a man in a row about chips being thrown on a London bus just hours after being wrongly released from prison.

In 2009 it was disclosed by the MoJ that all “Release in Error” incidents had to be reported immediately and formal investigations had to be held into every case. Prison governors and custody managers were made to review sentence calculations to ensure that fewer mistakes were made on release dates.

In 2021 the issue was further highlighted by the case of Lauras Matiusovas, 31, who was accidentally released last year from Pentonville prison, in London, just two days into a four-year prison term.

The convicted blackmailer spent ten days with his pals before officials realised the mistake and he was rearrested and sent back to continue his sentence.

Last year there was a case where guards at HMP Grendon, in Bucks, released the wrong prisoner for a hospital visit because he and another inmate had the same name.

He was returned to the jail after the guards that were escorting him on the trip realised the prisoner was confused as to why he needed to visit the hospital.

A Prison Service spokesman said: “Releases in error are incredibly rare but we take them extremely seriously. As soon as an error is identified, we work with the police to recapture the prisoner as soon as possible.”