Release blunders by five jails in Yorkshire

A VIOLENT criminal, a drug offender and burglars were among the prisoners wrongly set free in Yorkshire last year when five of the region’s jails released inmates by mistake.

Figures obtained by the Yorkshire Post under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that 68 inmates were released in error from prisons across England and Wales between April 2009 and March 2010.

They include two criminals who were held at New Hall prison, near Wakefield. One was inside for burglary and the other was suspected of theft and handling stolen goods.

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An inmate wrongly released by Moorland Open prison, near Doncaster, was being held for violent crime. Leeds prison set free a drug offender and Wealstun jail a burglar.

Doncaster prison also released an inmate by mistake. The Ministry of Justice was unable to disclose what the prisoner had been detained for but admitted it could be criminal damage or affray.

Five of the Yorkshire prisoners were returned to custody within days. The sixth, a woman who had completed her sentence but had been ordered to serve more time due to bad behaviour, was allowed to remain free.

Prison Officers Association spokesman Glyn Travis warned that budget cuts within the Prison Service would only make the situation worse.

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“The problems that will come from the cuts announced by the coalition Government will probably lead to more mistakes,” he said.

“The more mistakes we have in prison, the more likely it is that the public will be exposed to serious risk.

“Criminals are given an original sentence but during their time in custody they may have to go back to court to face other charges, and they may be given longer sentences.

“Those longer sentences need to be added to the prisoner’s records but that information is not being processed or entered and we are hearing of some cases in Yorkshire where those details remain unentered for weeks or months on end.

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“It’s only by the grace of God that we have not had the wrongful discharge of a serious offender and a member of the public has not been killed.

“Prison governors are having to prioritise where they put their staff and the administration of prisoner records is sometimes one of the areas which are not dealt with.”

The revelations come a year after the Yorkshire Post found that four of the region’s prisons, including Doncaster and Wealstun, had wrongly freed inmates between April 2008 and March 2009.

A Prison Service spokesman said: “We take public protection extremely seriously and this type of error is a rare but regrettable occurrence.

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“The Prison Service has developed robust procedures to deal with such situations.

“There are approximately 91,200 releases each year. There will inevitably be some errors, although the rate remains extremely low.

“The majority of those who are released in error are returned to custody very quickly.”