Eight criminals freed from jail by mistake
Eight criminals were mistakenly released from two prisons in Birmingham and South Staffordshire in the past five years, figures revealed today.
The mistakes were made at HMP Birmingham in Winson Green and Featherstone Prison. The prisoners had been serving time for a range of crimes, including robbery and drugs offences.
One of the prisoners who was released early from HMP Birmingham in 2010/2011 has never been returned to jail – but Ministry of Justice bosses refused to reveal his identity or whether they are still looking for him.
The figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request to the Ministry of Justice show that three of the prisoners were mistakenly released in the last financial year of 2012/13.
A total of seven prisoners have been mistakenly released early from HMP Birmingham since 2008, and one from Featherstone in the 2010/2011 financial year. The criminals released from HMP Birmingham had committed offences including violent crime and robbery, whereas the one prisoner released in error from Featherstone had been sent there for drugs offences.
A statement from the Ministry of Justice which accompanied the Freedom of Information act response, states: "Releases in error are a highly complicated area.
Not all prisoners will necessarily be unlawfully at large and therefore may not be required to return to custody.
"For example, a prisoner who is released but should have remained in custody for further charges may appear at court as required and receive a community sentence.
"Not all prisoners who are released in error are released from prisons, a small number are released in error from court. Also, not all prisoners who are released in error are serving a sentence, some may be on remand or convicted but unsentenced, whilst others may be held for immigration reasons only."
Spokesperson from the Ministry of Justice Sofia Kannas added: "Releases in error are very rare and we take these incidents extremely seriously.
"There are approximately 86,000 releases each year and the error rate remains extremely low. The vast majority of those who are released in error are returned to custody very quickly."
The figures come after a report revealed that drugs and high numbers of sex offenders remain a problem for HMP Birmingham.
The issues were published in the annual report of the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Birmingham to the Secretary of State for Justice earlier this month.
