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Britain's prisons are in "crisis", a minister has admitted after a series of accidental releases and escapes. Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones claimed 14 years of Tory austerity had ravaged the UK's justice system, in a nightmare that cannot be fixed "overnight". Her comments came as a manhunt continues for two criminals released by mistake, including a migrant sex offender. Their escape comes shortly after Hadush Kebatu was wrongfully released. Staff were meant to be taking him to a deportation centre but instead let him go. Here's what we know, the Tory record, and what happens next. Surrey Police are hunting for convicted fraudster William Smith, who was freed from Wandsworth Prison by mistake on Monday after he was at sentenced at Croydon Crown Court to 45 months for multiple fraud offences. He was sentenced at the court to 45 months - nearly four years - behind bars after being convicted of multiple fraud offences, and has "links to Woking but could be anywhere in Surrey". At present, Surrey Police representatives have confirmed they are carrying out "enquiries at pace" to locate the offender. The force said he was last seen wearing a navy long sleeve jumper. Describing the prisoner, a spokesperson said he is white, bald and clean-shaven. They said: "Smith was last seen wearing a navy long sleeve jumper with the Nike brand ‘tick’ across the front in white, navy blue tracksuit bottoms with a Nike ‘tick’ in white on the left pocket, and black trainers." The search is taking place as the London Metropolitan Police seek convicted Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif. Kaddour-Cherif, 24, walked free on October 29 while serving a sentence for trespass with an intent to steal, and remains at large today, with Wandsworth officials facing questions about what happened. He was understood to have a "history of criminality", but his disappearance from prison went unreported to the Met Police until almost a week later on Tuesday, November 4. The service said in a statement: "The Met was informed of the release shortly after 13:00hrs yesterday (Tuesday, 4 November) and immediately deployed officers to begin a search. "We can confirm that the released prisoner is 24-year-old Brahim Kaddour Cherif who is an Algerian national. He is also known to use other variations of his name, including Ibrahim." Then there is Kebatu, who was wrongly released from HMP Chelmsford, who arrived in Ethiopia last month after being deported from the UK with no right to return. The 38-year-old was handed a 12-month jail sentence just weeks ago for sexually assaulting a 14 year old girl and a woman in Essex. The Ethiopian national was initially set to be deported but instead sparked a significant manhunt across the south east. Kebatu had been residing at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, when he committed his offences. It is understood Kebatu, who crossed the Channel in a small boat to enter the UK on June 29, left prison with an amount of personal money but was not given a discharge grant to cover subsistence costs. Labour inherited a major prisons crisis from the Tories, who failed to ensure there was sufficient jail space to deal with a growing prison population. Between 2012 and 2023, 146 prisoners escaped under the Tories. During the same period, 1634 people absconded. There were also 4753 temporary release failures, while 682 prisoners were released in error. Prison releases in error steadily increased under the Tories, from around 40 in 2012 to more than 100 in 2023/24. They jumped to over 250 in 2024/25, when emergency early release measures were in place. The Ministry of Justice says examples of incorrect release include misplaced warrants for imprisonment or remand, recall notices not acted upon, or sentence miscalculation. The Mirror revealed last year(2024) that 37 prisoners who were jailed for breaching restraining orders were wrongly let out under Labour’s early release scheme after their offences were logged under outdated legislation. As a result, Shabana Mahmood , the former Justice Secretary and now Home Secretary, was forced to take emergency early release measures when she first came into office last year. She said the justice system was on the brink of collapse and that criminals would not be able to be arrested if jail space was not urgently made available. She later launched a major review of sentencing, with legislation now going through Parliament to bring in reforms including more punishment in the community to ease the prison capacity crisis. Speaking this week, Andy Slaughter, the Labour chair of the Commons justice committee, said the events “speak to a wider justice system at breaking point”. He added: “While the day-to-day running of prison security and public safety are paramount, the current spate of releases in error will be repeated until the underlying failures are addressed.” Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, told Times Radio that austerity had an impact on the prisons system. “Prisons are not vote winners… after 14 years of austerity and cuts, well, let’s be honest, cuts have consequences. And this is the fruition of those cuts,” he said. Prison governors have been today hauled in for crisis talks over the escapes and accidental releases. Ms Davies-Jones announced prison chiefs were summoned for a meeting on Thursday, while pointing the finger at 14 years of austerity that left prisons, schools and education “in crisis”. Appearing on the BBC , Ms Davies-Jones also announced a crack team of tech experts were being brought in to help digitise a system that still used paper for prisoner records. She told the BBC: “We are deploying tech experts to try and help our brilliant men and women who work in our prisons, because they are working with reams and reams of paper in the 21st century, which is totally unacceptable. “We are convening an urgent meeting of the governors of the prisons to try and figure out exactly what is going on on the ground, because these, again, are the men and women dealing with this day in day out.” The Government had already promised the “strongest checks ever”, and an independent investigation led by Dame Lynne Owens in the wake of last month’s blunder which saw Epping hotel migrant Kebatu accidentally released.
