Dozens of prisoners mistakenly launched early from jail after system error

On Sep 25, 2024

Dozens of prisoners were mistakenly released early from jail under the new emergency scheme to free up space.

Sources at the Ministry of Justice confirmed that 37 prisoners who were jailed for breaching restraining orders have been wrongly let out after their offences were logged under outdated legislation. Five prisoners have not yet been returned to jail but the remainder have been brought back into custody.

All victims have been contacted after the incorrect release of inmates. Offenders who had been jailed for breaching a restraining order were among those excluded from the government’s early release plan. The offence included in the list of the exclusions was under the Sentencing Act 2020.

But it has emerged that some people who committed a breach of a restraining order were charged by police and sentenced in the courts under outdated legislation, the Protection for Harassment Act 1997. This was later replaced by the Sentencing Act. This has meant that the prison records cited the incorrect offence and therefore did not get flagged up when people were excluded from the early release scheme.

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: “Public safety is our first priority. That is why we took decisive action to fix the broken prison system we inherited and keep the most dangerous offenders locked up. This included blocking the early release of domestic abuse offences such as stalking and controlling behaviour.

“We are working with the police to urgently return a very small number of offenders – who were charged incorrectly and sentenced under repealed legislation – to custody. The convictions remain valid with offenders monitored since their release and will soon be back behind bars.”

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