JAIL SCANDAL: CRIMINALS FREE TO PROWL STREETS

Blunders allow 739 prisoners to escape or be 'released in error' over decade

-  Michael Knowles

MORE than 700 prisoners have escaped or been "released in error" from jails during the past decade, shocking figures show.

Sex offenders, drug dealers and violent robbers are among those set free by blunders.

In one horrific case, a sex offender raped a 16-year-old girl and sexually assaulted another young woman after being mistakenly released by the prison service.

Critics of the nation's crumbling criminal justice system warned it is another damning example of how it is failing to protect victims.

And ministers were under pressure last night to introduce more stringent measures to eliminate the mistakes, highlighted in the figures obtained by the Express.

The public will be "horrified" to discover that a prisoner either escapes or is released in error every week.

'Public will be horrified so many violent inmates have been let out by mistake'

In total, 739 prisoners have escaped or been mistakenly released since 2012. Last year, 12 broke free and 54 were let go after a blunder.

Alarming figures also showed five of those who escaped custody were on the run for more than a month.

Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed said: "The public will be horrified and outraged that so many violent criminals, sex offenders, robbers, thieves and drug dealers have been let out by mistake.