Prison governors in crisis talks as hunt continues for wrongly released inmates

Prison governors have been called in for crisis talks as a manhunt continues for two criminals released by mistake, including a migrant sex offender.

Police are trying to track down Algerian national Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth on October 29.

They are also searching for another inmate, Billy Smith, 35, accidentally released from the same south-west London prison on Monday.

Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones said prison chiefs were being summoned for a meeting on Thursday and a team of digital experts had been tasked with overhauling the “archaic” paper-based system of prisoner records.

She told the BBC: “We are deploying tech experts to try and help our brilliant men and women who work in our prisons, because they are working with reams and reams of paper in the 21st century, which is totally unacceptable.

“We are convening an urgent meeting of the governors of the prisons to try and figure out exactly what is going on on the ground, because these, again, are the men and women dealing with this day in day out.”

The Government had already promised the “strongest checks ever”, and an independent investigation led by Dame Lynne Owens in the wake of last month’s blunder which saw Epping hotel migrant Hadush Kebatu accidentally released.

Ms Davies-Jones told Times Radio she was “furious” about the situation.

She said: “It’s not going to be fixed overnight, sadly, I don’t have a magic wand, but we are putting plans in place to actually fix the issues.”

Justice Secretary David Lammy is under fire after reports emerged which suggested he was aware of Kaddour-Cherif’s release and had prepared to address it when he filled in for Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, but did not.

The story broke as PMQs were ending, and a comment released on Mr Lammy’s behalf said he was “absolutely outraged” over Kaddour-Cherif’s release.

Mr Lammy is understood to have been briefed about the case on Tuesday night, and The Times newspaper reported he had a statement ready to read out if the news broke, but did not do so for fear of pre-empting the Metropolitan Police.

The newspaper also said Mr Lammy rejected calls from Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle to return to the Commons and give a statement on the error as aides believed it would be “career suicide”.

The Ministry of Justice defended Mr Lammy’s actions, and pinned the blame on the crisis facing prisons.

A spokesman said: “The crisis in the prison system this Government inherited is such that basic information about individual cases can take unacceptably long to reach ministers.

“On entering the House, facts were still emerging about the case and the DPM (Deputy Prime Minister) had not been accurately informed of key details including the offender’s immigration status.”

Kaddour-Cherif was serving a sentence at Wandsworth for trespass with intent to steal, but had previously also been convicted for indecent exposure.

He was freed from the prison, which was put into special measures last year, on October 29, but the mistake was only reported to the Metropolitan Police on Tuesday, the force said.

The Algerian national is understood to not be an asylum seeker, but is in the process of being deported after he overstayed his visa.

Smith, who has links to the Woking area, was freed on Monday, and had been sentenced to 45 months for multiple fraud offences on the same day he was accidentally released.

The BBC reported that a clerical error by a court had led to his release, as he was listed as receiving a suspended sentence, rather than one in custody.

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick accepted the last Conservative government’s record on prisons was “poor and unacceptable”, but that ministers had worked to “keep people in jail” during that time.

He told the BBC’s Today programme: “Does anyone today,… have confidence in David Lammy, I don’t. Does anyone?

“The Justice Secretary’s got to get a grip.”

In an earlier appearance on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Mr Jenrick swore on live television when discussing the wrongly released prisoners and the Government’s response, calling it “total bullshit”.

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

The Prison Governors Association (PGA) described releases in error as “neither rare nor hidden”, but said the scale of them was “deeply concerning” – with 262 prisoners released in error in the last full year of reporting.

In a statement, the PGA also tried to give wider context for mistaken releases, and criticised those trying to “extract political gain” from the crisis in prisons.

The PGA said: “Currently, around 0.5% of prisoners are not released on the correct date. While that may appear to be a small percentage, in a system managing tens of thousands of releases and transfers each quarter, it does represent a significant operational failure.

“The conditions required to reduce this figure to zero simply do not exist. Achieving a zero-error outcome would demand substantial investment in staff training, modern IT infrastructure, and recruitment, all within a system already stretched by competing priorities. Successive governments have accepted this level of risk for decades.

“In that context, it feels disingenuous to see politicians attempt to extract political gain from a prison system in crisis.”