Yorkshire prisons close to capacity amid crisis
The majority of Yorkshire prisons are almost entirely full, new figures show, amid a national renewed focus on a system described as “close to breaking point”.
Nine of the region’s 15 prisons are at least 95 per cent full, with several having prisoners forced to share cells that were designed for one person.
HMP Lindholme, near Doncaster, had only 10 free spaces out of a capacity of 1010 last month, according to the latest Ministry of Justice data.
This shows that around 400 inmates are sharing cells that were meant for one person.
In HMP Leeds, there are 23 spaces out of a capacity of 1110, with the majority of prisoners sharing cramped cells designed for one lag.
The figures come amid a focus amongst politicians on the prisons crisis, after a spate of prisoners have been wrongfully released.
Ministers have faced mounting pressure over releases in error after the double manhunt sparked by the releases of an Algerian sex offender and a fraudster from HMP Wandsworth.
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Algerian national Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was arrested on Friday after a police search following his release from the south-west London prison on October 29, which Scotland Yard said officers were only informed last Tuesday.
Another prisoner, Billy Smith, 35, who was also accidentally freed from Wandsworth on Monday – after having been sentenced to 45 months for multiple fraud offences – handed himself back in on Thursday.
Over the weekend, it emerged that a total of four offenders mistakenly freed – two released in June this year, and two in 2024 – remained at large.
Three are now understood to remain free, with one having been returned to custody.
Justice Secretary David Lammy admitted there is a “mountain to climb” to tackle the crisis in the prisons system.
The blunders have intensified pressure on Mr Lammy following the mistaken release of Hadush Kebatu, whose arrest for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman while living in an asylum hotel sparked protests in Epping, Essex.
Stronger security checks were announced for prisons and an independent investigation was launched into releases in error after the now-deported Ethiopian national was accidentally freed from HMP Chelmsford on October 24.
Some 262 inmates were mistakenly let out in the year to March 2025 – a 128 per cent increase on the 115 in the previous 12 months, according to the latest Government figures.
Meanwhile, chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said the mistakes were both a result of an “overcomplicated” sentencing framework and a symptom of “a system that is close to breaking point.”
“The increasing frequency of these embarrassing and potentially dangerous mistakes is not just the result of an overcomplicated sentencing framework; it is a symptom of a system that is close to breaking point,” he wrote for the Telegraph.