If this wasn’t so serious, I would be giving myself a hernia
laughing.
There’s the Safely Elephant who has been let out of the traps to use his Doc Martins to savage Henry Porter, Simon Carr and Jenni Russell and what is he forced to admit? That his Home office officials have managed release more than 1000 prisoners who ought to have left these shores for pastures new. According to this
“Among the offenders, five had been convicted of committing sex offences on children, seven had served time for other sex offences, 57 for violent offences and two for manslaughter.
There were also 41 burglars, 20 drug importers, 54 convicted of assault and 27 of indecent assault.”
Does anyone really think the Home Office are capable of operating an ID card scheme when they are unable to keep tabs on a thousand prisoners with “deport after release” on their prison papers?
In May 2004 the Prison Reform Trust published a paper entitled
"Forgotten Prisoners- The Plight of Foreign National Prisoners in England and Wales”. Here (pdf)
So why didn’t the Home Secretary Blunkett not read this.
It also appears unbelievably that this fiasco continued AFTER the National Audit Office reported the problem to HMG last year.
