The New Statesman.

In the past three weeks, 12 prisoners have been accidentally released, Justice Secretary David Lammy announced this morning.

This is an addition to the 91 who've also been mistakenly freed in England and Wales in the last six months.

It's fair to say the justice system is in a bad way, leaking from the sides.

Trying his best to mop this up, Lammy announced today that jury trials in England and Wales

should be scrapped, except for in the most extreme cases.

I'm Olly Doug Moore, and this is the New Statesman podcast.

And for our own Justice Review, I am joined today by our associate political editor, Rachel Kahnleff.

Hello.

Hello, hello, hello.

Rachel, we're going to talk about all of this. We're going to talk about juries. We're going to talk about the broader problems in the justice system. but first let's just pick up with these accidental releases,

which I feel like we all started paying attention to after

Hadish Kabatu, jail for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl while living in an asylum, hotel

and Epping. He was mistakenly freed. Has this always been going on? Is this a new phenomenon?

Yes, it's always been going on. And yes, it has also got worse in the last year. So points there

for both Labour and the Conservatives.

Fun fact, in 14 years of Conservative government, over 800 prisoners were mistakenly released.

So yes, this is a major flaw with the system.

And you would think, like, justice system, like one of the key jobs it's got is to keep the people you want in prison

for the time they're meant to be in prison and then let them out when needed.

But this is a systemic issue.

It's just that we've only started paying attention.

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