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Prison chiefs refuse to name escaped inmates 'in case they go into hiding'
Prison bosses have refused to name inmates on the run from a notorious jail in case they go into hiding.Ministry of Justice officials also insisted that identifying the seven convicts would breach their right to privacy, even though some of them escaped more than five years ago. Between 1995-96 and 2008-9, 261 inmates absconded from Hollesley Bay open prison, near Woodbridge, Suffolk - where disgraced Tory peer Lord Archer was once held - and seven are still at large. But the MoJ said it would not release their names, descriptions or pictures because it would breach the Freedom of Information Act and the principles of the Data Protection Act - in particular the right to privacy. Officials even refused to reveal the total number of absconders in 2009-10 and 2010-11 because it wants to 'publish the information in its own time'. The department's response from Sharanjit Nagra, of the National Offender Management Service, states: 'I am afraid the details of the absconders you request ... are exempt under section 40 of the Freedom Of Information Act, disclosure of personal data to a third party.' Posted by: tipper 2011-01-11 |
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