LONDON, U.K. — A manhunt is underway in the United Kingdom after two prisoners were accidentally released in the latest blunder to hit the country’s troubled prison system.
One of the inmates, Billy Smith, 35, surrendered to authorities three days after being wrongly freed from Wandsworth Prison in south London, police said on Thursday.
Smith handed himself in after Surrey Police launched a manhunt on Wednesday when it emerged he and another inmate, Brahim Kaddour Cherif, 24, had both been mistakenly released.
Cherif, an Algerian national, was freed on October 29 and remains on the run.
The incident has sparked fresh outrage and embarrassment for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government, already facing mounting criticism over a series of administrative failures in the criminal justice system.
Junior justice minister Alex Davies-Jones said senior prison officials had been “summoned for urgent talks” following what she called a “completely unacceptable catalogue of errors.”
The UK prison service has been under intense pressure amid chronic overcrowding, staff shortages and outdated management systems that watchdogs say have made such errors increasingly common.
Just last month, Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian asylum seeker convicted of sexual assault, was wrongly released and recaptured after a 48-hour manhunt. Authorities later deported him, giving him £500 ($661) to leave the country.
According to official figures, 262 prisoners were mistakenly released between March 2024 and March 2025, compared to 115 cases in the previous 21 months — highlighting the scale of the problem.
The repeated errors have become a political flashpoint for Starmer’s centre-left Labour government, which opinion polls show is struggling to maintain public confidence as Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party gains support.
Police have urged the public to share any information that could help locate Cherif, who remains at large.
Police are urging anyone with information about Cherif’s whereabouts to come forward.
