Labour’s prisons disgrace as Calamity Lammy reveals 12 extra inmates have been mistakenly launched within the final month
There have been 12 further accidental releases of prisoners this month – two of which are still at large, Justice Secretary David Lammy confirmed today.
The Ministry of Justice previously released figures earlier this month that showed 91 accidental releases took place between April 1 and October 31 this year.
But Mr Lammy revealed on BBC Breakfast this morning that since he provided that figure to MPs on November 11, another 12 inmates had been released in error.
He said: ‘Well, I said to Parliament a few weeks ago, I released data at that point, and there had been 91 releases in error up to that point. There have been 12 since then, two are currently at large. That’s new information that I’m sharing with you.’
Mr Lammy, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, then boasted that ‘the trend is downwards because of some of the improvements that I’ve put into the system’.
He cited a new urgent hotline staffed by court experts allowing prisons to quickly escalate queries relating to warrants, which aims to reduce the risk of errors.
The Tottenham MP also referred to an independent review led by Dame Lynne Owens which is looking at release errors and improving transparency on release data.
He added: ‘I made it clear in Parliament that on a paper-based system there will always be human error and there has been human error for all of my lifetime.
Justice Secretary David Lammy
‘Until we move to a completely digital system, I think it’s impossible to rule out human error. But there has been a spike, it’s on a downward trajectory. There have been 12 since I made that statement. At the moment two are currently at large.’
When it was stated that this took the total over 100, he said: ‘Well, no, because some of those people have come back into the prison system in terms of the total.’
Mr Lammy continued: ‘I made clear to Parliament when I spoke to them that the trajectory began to increase in the last four years of the last government because of their new release scheme – so the complexity of that system, a system that we’re simplifying with the Sentencing Bill through Parliament.
‘It does mean that every week there are one or two cases. It places huge demands on our police, particularly, as we re-arrest these people. That’s why I put the systems in place to bring the number down. But we would have to move beyond a paper-based system.’
Asked for more details on the two prisoners at large, Mr Lammy said: ‘I’m not going to give you names about that. Just sit back. Often the police are about to nab somebody and the last thing they want is that person to know that they are going to be arresting them.
‘So that is an operational decision for policing and I’ve got to stand by that. I’ve revealed more information on this issue than has ever been revealed before.’
