Mistakes in prisoner releases ‘symptom of system chaos’, warns chief inspector

Mistakes in the release of prisoners are happening “all the time” and are symptomatic of the chaos within the system, the chief inspector of prisons has warned.

Charlie Taylor has said prisoners being released early, in error or even late is an “endemic problem” now that needs to be fixed by prison service leaders.

His call comes after asylum seeker Hadush Kebatu, who was jailed for sexually assaulting a teenage girl, was mistakenly freed from HMP Chelmsford on Friday instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre.

Kebatu’s case had sparked protests and counter-protests on the streets in Epping, where he was living in asylum accommodation, and eventually outside hotels housing asylum seekers across the country.

Speaking to the PA news agency, Mr Taylor said: “This is a case that has hit the news because it’s an incredibly high-profile prisoner convicted of a very serious offence.

“But the worry is that below the radar, this stuff has been going on a lot recently and I’m really worried about it.”

He described the case as “enormously concerning”, adding: “But I think it’s symptomatic of the chaos that we’re seeing within the system, where the number of prisoners who were released early has gone up.”

He said “serious mistakes” were made at HMP Chelmsford, which is a “very busy” reception prison, while an inspection at HMP Pentonville and unpublished findings at HMP Birmingham show “serious anomalies” of sentence calculations going on there too.

“I suspect this is common to many of these sorts of very busy Victorian reception prisons who were just under a huge amount of strain,” the chief prisons inspector said.

“I think it’s very easy to throw an individual at Chelmsford under the bus for this, but this is a systemic problem and the prison service needs to take some responsibility as well for failing to fix this issue, which has got much, much worse in the last couple of years.”

He added: “Chelmsford is just a very busy reception prison. This stuff is happening all the time.

“This is an endemic problem now within the prison service and it’s a structural problem that needs to be fixed by the leadership of the prison service, and it won’t just get fixed by individual prisons and prison governors.”

According to Government figures published in July, 262 prisoners were released in error in the year to March 2025 – a 128% increase on 115 the previous 12 months.

Mr Taylor attributed the increase to many “very inexperienced” people working in prisons, with staff having big caseloads and a limited amount of training.

He added that prisons like Chelmsford are “incredibly overcrowded” and have a huge churn of prisoners.

Meanwhile, he raised the issue of various early release schemes to ease jail overcrowding and technicalities around that such as tagging.

Among emergency measures, thousands of eligible inmates have been released early since last year after serving only 40% of their fixed-term sentence, rather than the usual 50%.

“So the landscape is very complicated and that certainly hasn’t helped and is almost certainly a cause of some of these issues,” he said.

“But nevertheless, you know, there were some serious mistakes made at Chelmsford, and you know ministers are right to be annoyed about it.”

Justice Secretary David Lammy will set out a series of measures aimed at strengthening the system later on Monday while prisons are expected to begin enhanced checks before inmates are released.

Mr Taylor said there should already be “watertight” systems in place but he can understand why ministers want to put on another layer to get assurance the work is being done.

He added: “Actually, the prison service needs to be accountable for making sure that people are properly trained, that the offender management units – that’s the part of the prison that does this work – have enough staff in order to be able to do it.

“Where there are big changes in policy, as we’re seeing very regularly at the moment, that they make sure there’s enough resource going into prison so they can make those changes without dropping the ball, as they spectacularly have in this case.”

Asked what he would like to see come out of the investigation ordered by ministers over the incident, Mr Taylor said: “We need to see this stuff just stop happening.

“It’s about making sure that sentence calculations are done in a timely fashion when people first come into the jail, that this complicated work is overseen properly by managers, that staff are properly trained, and they’re … able to do the job.”

He also said it would be interesting to see from the investigation whether there is a systemic issue between the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office on co-ordinating deportations or whether this is a one-off case.

The mistaken release of Kebatu comes as the Government’s Sentencing Bill is under way in Parliament which will introduce more early release measures for prisoners to tackle jail overcrowding in the long-term.

The legislation includes plans for a Texas-inspired earned release scheme, where inmates who demonstrate good behaviour could be freed earlier, while those who break the rules will serve longer jail time.

Mr Taylor said he thinks it is the amount of change that has been “making life difficult for prisons” such as different rules for early releases, but that “with any luck” once the Bill is introduced and the new changes are established “this problem will go away”.