{"id":101910,"date":"2024-07-25T15:42:06","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T15:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/25\/87-prisoners-released-by-mistake-last-year-as-violence-and-self-harm-rose-in-overcrowded-prisons\/"},"modified":"2024-07-25T15:42:06","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T15:42:06","slug":"87-prisoners-released-by-mistake-last-year-as-violence-and-self-harm-rose-in-overcrowded-prisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/25\/87-prisoners-released-by-mistake-last-year-as-violence-and-self-harm-rose-in-overcrowded-prisons\/","title":{"rendered":"87 prisoners released by mistake last year – as violence and self-harm rose in overcrowded prisons"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A record number of prisoners were released in error last year, as violence and self-harm rose in increasingly overcrowded prisons, new statistics reveal.<\/p>\n

In the 12 months to March 2024, 87 prisoners were released by mistake – 23% more in England and Wales than the previous year – making it the highest number ever recorded, according to Ministry of Justice figures.<\/p>\n

Prisoners are released in error in a number of ways, including misplaced warrants for imprisonment or remand, recall notices not acted upon, sentence miscalculation or discharging the wrong person on escort.<\/p>\n

Seventy of the 87 released by mistake were errors made by prisons while 17 were released in error by courts.<\/p>\n

The newly released statistics also revealed an increase in the number of prison escapes, with 12 people escaping in the year to March 2024.<\/p>\n

One prisoner remained at large 30 days after escaping.<\/p>\n

The escape of former soldier Daniel Khalife<\/a><\/strong>, awaiting trial on terrorism charges, from Wandsworth Prison under a food delivery lorry captured the attention of the nation last September as police asked for the public’s help to find him.<\/p>\n

The year before, eight prisoners escaped but none were at large for 30 days or more.<\/p>\n

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\n Daniel Khalife escaped from Wandsworth Prison last year
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Read more:
Officer stabbed in chest at HMP Frankland<\/a><\/strong>
Toubled youth prison is now most violent jail in England<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

There was a 2% increase in the prison population this year, with 87,726 people in prison on 30 June 2024.<\/p>\n

That was about 4,700 higher than pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n

Overcrowding in prisons also increased for the third year in a row, with 23.6% of prisoners held in crowded accommodation compared with 22.9% in the previous 12-month period.<\/p>\n

In overcrowded prisons, 99.7% of prisoners – 20,470 – were held in double cells.<\/p>\n

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The government has approved legislation to release some prisoners – not the most serious offenders – from prison on licence after serving 40% of their sentence<\/a><\/strong>, instead of the current 50%, to alleviate overcrowding.<\/p>\n

The number of assaults in prison increased by nearly 30%, with 28,292 violent assaults in a year.<\/p>\n

There was an increase in prisons given the lowest “serious concern” rating, from nine the year before to 15 up until March – out of a total 123 prisons in England and Wales.<\/p>\n

Thirteen prisons – the same number as last year – were rated outstanding, while 35 were “of concern”, the second lowest, and 56 were rated “good”.<\/p>\n

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Why are prisons overcrowded?
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Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood KC, said: “Our prisons are in crisis, leading to endemic violence and harm behind bars.<\/p>\n

“These statistics reveal what is really happening inside jails today, and why we had no choice but to act.<\/p>\n

“This government will always protect the public, lock up dangerous offenders, and make prisons safe for prisoners and the brave staff who work there.”<\/p>\n

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The finding of drugs, mobile phones and weapons increased in prisons but alcohol decreased.<\/p>\n

There were:<\/p>\n

\u2022 21,145 drug finds (44% increase)<\/p>\n

\u2022 10,669 mobile phones seizures (35% increase)<\/p>\n

\u2022 11,641 weapons discoveries (24% increase)<\/p>\n

\u2022 9,136 alcohol finds (4% decrease).<\/p>\n

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\n New Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood during a visit to HMP Bedford. Pic: PA
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Self-harm incidents in prisons hit a record high of 73,804 – a rate of one prisoner hurting themselves every seven minutes.<\/p>\n

Female prisons were the worst for self-harm incidents, with 66.7% (eight) attaining the worst or second worst rating in that category.<\/p>\n

They were also the poorest performing prisons for assaults on staff, with 75% (nine) failing to meet their targets.<\/p>\n

All reception prisons failed to meet their prisoner-on-prisoner assault targets.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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A record number of prisoners were released in error last year, as violence and self-harm rose in increasingly overcrowded prisons, new statistics reveal. In the 12 months to March 2024, 87 prisoners were released by mistake – 23% more in England and Wales than the previous year – making it the highest number ever recorded, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/23\/09\/768x432\/skynews-daniel-abed-khalife_6276594.jpg?20230907091536","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[10819,48239,40164,17775,3125,8216,85234,201,568],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101912,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101910\/revisions\/101912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}