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Artificial intelligence chatbots could be used to stop prisoners from being mistakenly released from jail, a justice minister told the House of Lords on Monday.
James Timpson said HMP Wandsworth had been given the green light to use AI after a specialised team was sent in to find “some quick fixes”.
A double manhunt was launched last week after the incorrect release of a sex offender and a fraudster from the prison in south-west London.
Release errors over the past fortnight have been seized upon by opposition MPs as evidence of the helplessness of ministers in the face of chaos within the criminal justice system.
David Lammy, the justice secretary, is expected to address parliament about the number of missing prisoners when MPs return on Tuesday.
It is understood that AI could be used to read and process paper documents; help staff cross-reference names to ensure that inmates are no longer hiding their past crimes behind aliases; merge different datasets; and calculate release dates and sentences.
At present, many of these jobs are being completed by inexperienced staff using calculators and reams of paper.
Responding to questions in the upper chamber on Monday, Lord Timpson said: “The number of releases per prison varies dramatically. In HMP Gartree, they average two releases a year, whereas … in Wandsworth it is 2,000.
“But that is why the digital team last week went into HMP Wandsworth to look at what are the opportunities for some quick fixes to embrace digital technology.
“We had the AI team that went in and, to give you a couple of examples, they think an AI chatbot would be really helpful, and also a cross-referencing for aliases, because we know some offenders have more than 20 aliases.”
He added: “We’ve given the team the green light to get on with that.”
Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was mistakenly freed on 29 October before being arrested on Friday after a police search.
He was serving a sentence for trespass with intent to steal, but had previously been convicted for indecent exposure.
He is understood to have overstayed his visitor’s visa to the UK after arriving in 2019, and was in the process of being deported.
Another prisoner, Billy Smith, 35, who was accidentally freed from Wandsworth on Monday after being sentenced to 45 months for fraud offences, handed himself back in on Thursday.
The accidental releases of the two men intensified pressure on Lammy, who days earlier had announced a new checklist for prison staff after the mistaken release of the sex offender Hadush Kebatu on 24 October.
Kebatu, who had come to the UK in a small boat, sparked disturbances in Epping, Essex, after sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman. He was wrongly released from Chelmsford prison and attempted to walk back into prison at least four times. He was eventually apprehended in Finsbury Park, north London, and given money as he was deported to Ethiopia.
In the 12 months to March this year, 262 prisoners were released in error, a 128% increase from 115 the previous year, according to government data. The vast majority (233) occurred in prisons, while the remaining 29 happened in courts.
According to unions and governors, there has been a recent increase in errors because of complicated early release schemes and a paper-based system, which means many documents are lost between prisons, courts and the Ministry of Justice.
The chief inspector of prisons has said the recent spate of prisoners being released too early is “a symptom of a system that is close to breaking point”.
Writing in the Telegraph on Sunday, Charlie Taylor said the growing number of mistaken early releases was “embarrassing and potentially dangerous”.
Over the weekend, it was reported that four offenders remained at large after being released in error, with two released in June this year and two in 2024.
On Monday, sources within the government suggested one of these had been returned to custody.
But in a sign of the crisis behind the scenes within the custodial estate, he is understood to have never been released in error and was miscounted among those who had been.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “These cases reflect the nature and scale of the prison crisis inherited by this government.
“We have been clear that there is no overnight fix. That’s why we’re building 14,000 more prison places and sending in tech experts to modernise the system and provide immediate support to staff.”
