Prison Service Under Fire Again

Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data shows that over the past 10 years, it has had to pay a total of £3.4 million in compensation to 773 prisoners who were held beyond their release date.

Prisoners were able to sue for this unlawful detention because it violated their right to liberty under Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

This year, in 2024-25, prison authorities were forced to pay £626,605 to 74 prisoners who were held unlawfully beyond their sentence, the highest amount ever and almost double the previous year's total of £346,299.

MoJ data shows that last year, prisoners were paid an average of £12,000 per week in compensation for being held beyond their release date. When officials misreport a release date, a long-term prisoner can typically sue the Ministry of Justice for around £110 for each extra day.

John O'Connell, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "It's a complete travesty that the same prison system that releases criminals early is now spending millions to keep others locked up longer.

This is what happens when basic capacity is exhausted: taxpayers have to foot the bill for government failures on both sides. The Ministry of Justice must fix this mess immediately before another pound of money is wasted on avoidable mistakes."

Lammy forced to order investigation

This comes after Justice Secretary David Lammy was forced by former National Crime Agency Chief Dame Lynne Owens to order a full investigation into the rapid increase in the number of prisoners mistakenly released early. The number of people wrongfully released early doubled from 115 last year to 262 by March, and 91 more people have been wrongly released since then. At least three, including an Albanian drug dealer, remain at large.

These errors came to light when 41-year-old migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford. A police search eventually found the Ethiopian man, who was arrested in London on October 28 and subsequently deported. Within days, it was discovered that a second migrant sex offender, Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, from Algeria, had been released early from HMP Wandsworth. Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor attributed these problems to a chronic shortage of experienced staff and the difficulties of numerous early release schemes introduced by Labour and Tory ministers to tackle prison overcrowding.

He said the massive task of recalculating the release dates of thousands of prisoners due to these schemes put immense pressure on the junior prison staff responsible for this task, which meant that errors were bound to increase.

Mr. Taylor writes, "The increasing number of these shameful and dangerous errors is not simply the result of an overly rigid sentencing structure; it is a symptom of a system that is close to breaking down."

He first highlighted the problem of wrongful over-detention of prisoners after an inspection at HMP Pentonville in London, where he found that in the previous six months, 130 prisoners, representing 20 percent of those eligible for release, had been detained beyond their release dates.

His report this summer stated that the government "must act much faster." He added, "In effect, the government is unlawfully imprisoning people because prisons are failing to accurately calculate their sentences."

A spokesperson for the MoJ said: “This government has inherited a troubled justice system, and these errors are another symptom of a broken system.

“The Deputy Prime Minister has clearly stated that these paper-based systems must be modernised and has already introduced stricter checks on prison releases, as well as investing record amounts in our courts, to keep our streets safe and protect the public.”