Bungling Home Office accused of 'systematic failures at all levels'

A devastating report describes 'systematic failures at all levels', lifting the lid on the chaos within the prisons and immigration systems which erupted into a major political scandal earlier this year, costing former Home Secretary Charles Clarke his job.

More than a thousand foreign criminals including killers and sex offenders were allowed to walk free from Britain's jails without being considered for deportation including killers, and at least 48 went on to commit more offences including one case of murder.

And to add to the Government's embarrassment watchdogs claim there is little evidence of improvement in the months since John Reid took over in May, famously condemning his own department as "not fit for purpose."

In her report published the Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers paints a picture of incompetence and failure, as struggling officials failed to pay attention to the growing crisis.

She said prison chiefs had been too busy "getting through the day" in overcrowded jails, while immigration officials were distracted by other priorities including trying to track down and deport failed asylum seekers.

Her report reveals:

'Many prisons had little idea how many or which foreign prisoners they were holding, or which ones had been recommended for deportation by the courts.'

'When prison officers tried to contact immigration staff to discuss foreign prisoner cases, 'messages went unanswered, faxes disappeared and there were no clear lines of responsibility.'

'There was "widespread ignorance and confusion" about immigration issues among prison staff.'

The task of deciding whether foreign prisoners should be deported after serving their sentence fell to a special unit within the Home Office's Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND), based at Croydon in south London.

Whistleblowers have described astonishing chaos at the department, with forgotten case files stuffed into cupboards which were so full workers were afraid to open them.

The report describes the "extreme frustration" among prison staff as they tried to contact IND, and found that "channels of communication were ineffective and wasted their time."

As well as failing to protect the public, the chaos meant foreign prisoners were not given access to help with language or maintaining links with their families, and even those not facing deportation were not properly prepared for release.

The report described how one young Chinese woman sobbed inconsolably for two days after arriving in prison, with officers unable to communicate with her.

When a translator was finally found it emerged the woman believed she was going to be executed by firing squad.

Anne Owers said the political scandal surrounding foreign prisoners was "an acute symptom of a chronic problem", adding: "It is not a good picture.

"Foreign prisoners were simply not high enough on the radar of either the prison service or the IND. They never got to the top of the in-tray."

She said both the prison service and the IND were hampered by "huge caseloads", and worsening jail overcrowding meant that staff struggled to tackle long-term problems "because you're struggling to survive the day in most prisons."

Most of the research for the report was completed before Charles Clarke was sacked as Home Secretary in May, but Ms Owers said follow-up work carried out over the summer - after new Home Secretary John Reid set out recovery plans -revealed continuing major problems.

Liberal Democrat spokesman Nick Clegg MP said: "This reports makes it clear exactly how 'unfit for purpose' Labour's system for dealing with foreign offenders has become.

"Questions remain about how ministers took so long to notice the scale of chaos. Ann Owers must feel intensely frustrated given she had been repeatedly warning the Government about the problems for five years.

"It is mind-boggling that after all these warnings the problems will still take months or even years to clear up."

Recent figures showed that just 86 out of the 1,013 prisoners wrongly released had been tracked down and deported.