1,000 DANGER MEN ON LOOSE

A total of 158 offenders on the run listed in yesterday’s figures were convicted of violent crimes.

Most prisoners serving a jail term of 12 months or more are released automatically at the half-way point of their sentence, the Ministry of Justice’s report said. They are expected to regularly report to probation officers, live at an approved address, keep out of trouble and may face other restrictions such as curfews or exclusions orders.

Those who breach the terms of their licence are supposed to be returned to jail to finish their sentences in custody. But Ministry of Justice officials admitted that Government targets for returning such offenders to jail are not being met.

Police are expected to find three quarters of prisoners within six days of recall, or within 74 hours in “emergency” cases involving serious crimes. During the year 2007-08, only 58 per cent of recalls were carried out within the official time limit, meaning 5,307 were not back in cells when they should have been.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman defended the performance on recalls as “creditable” despite the failure to hit official targets, adding: “The largest majority of reasons for recall in this data are for being out of touch with their probation officer.”

And Mr Straw said: “The recall system works well. Of those recalled between 1999 and June 2008, just 0.7per cent of offenders have not been apprehended.

“But we are far from complacent, and recognise that the system has to be strengthened further, not least in respect of those serious offenders who remain at large.” But Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of probation officers’ union, Napo, said: “It is of real concern that nearly 1,000 offenders who have been recalled to custody have gone missing. Many pose a threat to the public.

“The numbers will only be reduced if chasing warrants becomes a priority for the police – which won’t happen – or additional resources are made available for the probation and police services.”

But the Association of Chief Police Officers told forces to take “priority action” to urgently arrest sexual and violent offenders.