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Another prisoner may be released by mistake A migrant sex offender could be jailed again if the government does not carry out a “systematic” investigation into how he was wrongly released, criminal justice experts have warned.
Haddush Kebatu, jailed for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, was accidentally released from HMP Chelmsford on Friday, sparking widespread condemnation. A prison officer has been suspended during the investigation, with the government set to announce an independent inquiry.
Experts have now claimed that mistakes in prisoner releases happen “all the time” and are symptomatic of chaos within the prison system, which suffers from overcrowding, lack of investment, poor staff retention and delays in government decision-making.
Richard Garreside, director of the Center for Crime and Justice Studies, said Independent: “People need to be held accountable for mistakes, but the underlying context is that this is a prison system in crisis.
“If they [the government] “Without a systematic look at what has gone wrong, I suspect it will not be long before we have more incidents like this.”
Charlie Taylor, Chief Inspector prisonsDescribing the case as “extremely worrying”, he said: “But I think it is symptomatic of the lawlessness that we are seeing within the system, where the number of prisoners being released early has increased.”
He added: “This is now an endemic problem prison service And this is a structural problem that needs to be fixed by the leadership of the prison service, and will not just be fixed by individual prisons and prison governors.”
Kebatu, an Ethiopian national who was jailed for 12 months in September, was released instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre. He was re-arrested in London’s Finsbury Park on Sunday after a two-day search.
His initial arrest for a sex crime led to street protests and counter-demonstrations EppingWhere he was living in asylum accommodation, and eventually outside hotels for asylum seekers across the country.
Mr Taylor said “serious mistakes” were made at HMP Chelmsford, a “very busy” reception prison, while an inspection at HMP Pentonville and unpublished findings at HMP Birmingham revealed “serious inconsistencies” in sentence calculations were ongoing there too.
The Chief Inspector of Prisons said, “I suspect this is common to many of the very busy Victorian reception prisons, which were under enormous amounts of stress.”
“I think it is very easy to throw an individual under the bus in Chelmsford for this, but this is a systemic problem and the prison service also needs to take some responsibility for failing to fix this issue, which has become much worse over the last few years.”
A consultant at Prison Consultants, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the roots of the problems facing the prison system go back decades.
He cited changes in criminal law and sentencing guidelines that have led to more crimes and harsher sentences, along with cuts to prison staff and probation services, as well as an inadequate number of new prisons. He said the activities that prisoners could do within the prisons have also been withdrawn, while the prisons have not been maintained, for example, rat and cockroach infestations are common.
“Now we have less prison officerMore prisoners, more prisoners with nothing to do, and a lot of prisons that are closed,” he said, adding, “There is a long history of governments ignoring the prison service because it is not going to win votes.”
He saw a clear connection between neglect of the justice system and what happened to Kebtu, even saying that the incident was not unusual.
“This person was clearly released by mistake – this happens too often,” he said. “Under pressure an officer’s name is mixed up, numbers are mixed up, they are released by mistake – it happens. It is human error.
“I sympathize with the officers – many of them are doing a tough job in very difficult circumstances.”
Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust, suggested that the error in Kebatu’s case may have been caused by the Home Office, speculating that the need to deport him may not have been marked on his paperwork.
“Something has gone wrong in communication – both the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice have questions to answer,” he said.
The Home Office said it would not comment on speculation over the process of the arrangements.
According to government data published in July, 262 prisoners were released by mistake by March 2025 – a 128 percent increase compared to 115 in the previous 12 months.
Housing Secretary Steve Reed told broadcasters on Monday morning he shared their “frustration and fury”, but insisted there had been no change in policy under Labor that has led to the increase.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said she was “absolutely shocked” by the “level of incompetence” that led to Kebatu’s accidental release.
Meanwhile, the father of Kebatu’s teenage victim said he hoped the sex offender would be “immediately deported” – which Mr Lammy said should happen this week.