PRISONERS WRONGLY RELEASED

PRISON authorities have wrongly released 18 prisoners during the past 10 years in Wales, figures show.

Category B Cardiff prison made the most errors in Wales, having accidentally freed 11 inmates between 2006/07 and 2015/16.

Swansea accidentally released six inmates, while Usk/Prescoed prisons – marked as one institution in the government figures – mistakenly let one prisoner free.

The details of the offences committed by the prisoners are not known.

Commenting on the figures, Amanda Everitt, chairman of Mothers Against Murder and Aggression, said: “They should not be walking free.

“If it is recognised they have been wrongly released they should be recalled to serve the remainder of their sentence.

“If it is something that needs to be legislated there should be something done to enable that.”

Cardiff has the joint eighth worst record for wrongful releases over the past decade in England and Wales – along with Bristol, Belmarsh, Durham and Birmingham.

It also has the eighth worst record proportionate to the number of prisoners it houses – an average of 788 in the past 10 years.

“They should not be left to wander the streets,” Ms Everitt said.

“Our checks and measures should be so stringent that something like this should be impossible.

“It should not be able to happen. It must be devastating to victims to realise our justice system can be that sloppy.”

Across Wales and England a further 14 prisoners were wrongly freed while being escorted to and from jail.

Because of the way the figures have been collated it is not clear how many of these were from Wales.

“If you read that an offender has been wrongly released that must be devastating,” Ms Everitt added.

“We need to look at our checks and measures because there is clearly something wrong.

“We need to put it right and en- sure it stops.”

Monmouth MP David Davies agreed something needed to be done.

He said: “These are very small numbers but even one person being released from prison in error is one too many.

“We need to make certain that these mistakes do not happen.

“I think any incorrect release should be followed by an investigation as to what went wrong.

“Someone will have made a mistake and you would hope training would be undertaken so it does not happen again.”

The MOJ has not published figures for Parc Prison, which is privately run.

“Private prisons should be subject to the same scrutiny as any other prison,” Mr Davies said.

The Prison Service said the incidents were “rare”.

“The vast majority are returned to custody very quickly,” a spokesman said.

“We thoroughly investigate each incident to see what lessons can be learned, as well as working closely with the police to recapture offenders at large as necessary.”