A man was illegally held for two days after being put back on a prison bus despite the fact he should have been released. In 2022, Mr Justice Chamberlain shared his concerns after the West London Category B prison held a man for two extra days, despite him being found not guilty at a trial. The prison’s excuse was that it needed to make checks before he could be released.
HMP Wandsworth has been rapped by a judge for the second time in just over a year after it held a prisoner illegally. In his ruling the High Court judge criticised the prison for how it dealt with the inmate’s solicitor, writing ‘a prisoner is being unlawfully detained demands a substantive response as a matter of urgency, even over the weekend’.
Justice Chamberlain also predicted the incident was likely to happen again, with ‘little reassurance’ the events would not be repeated. Then on January 16 this year, Bumju Kim admitted the offence of battery at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, resulting in a 10-week sentence. As Mr Kim had already served half his sentence on remand, he should have been released the same day, but he was put back on the prison bus and taken to HMP Wandsworth where he was told it could take two days to be released.
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Mr Kim’s solicitor contacted the prison four times to complain, but was either ignored or told by staff he could not have the details of the governor. Only after the duty judge, Mr Justice Pepperall, ordered the governor to produce Mr Kim at the Royal Courts of Justice on January 17 for an emergency hearing, was Mr Kim released after the 11am deadline the same day.
Later, Governor Price conceded urgent clarification should have been sought from the court and staff working in the sentence calculation team should have understood Mr Kim was due for release. She also said there would be a formal investigation to establish what went wrong.
Judge Pepperall said: “This case again reveals a lamentable series of failings in the way in which the prison service deal with the release of prisoners and its apparent contempt for court orders.”
He said it was ‘worrying’ to see the dismissive way the solicitor was dealt with by prison staff, and noted the case should never have been dealt with out-of-hours as the hearing finished during the working day.
He concluded: “First, the Governor having conceded the point, I formally declare that Mr Kim’s continued detention following the sentencing hearing on 16 January 2024 was unlawful.
“Secondly, in view of the serious failures in this case both in respect of the proper and timely processing of Mr Kim’s release and in compliance with the court’s orders, I am in no doubt that the Governor should pay Mr Kim’s costs on the indemnity basis.”
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