The Ministry of Justice freed 179 prisoners by mistake in the year to March, official new figures show.
The total – covering jails in England and Wales – was down from 262 freed in error in the previous 12 months.
But it was still higher than the 115 seen in the year before that.
The latest figures come after Justice Secretary David Lammy came under fire at the end of last year as a series of high-profile prisoners were freed by mistake.
Results of an inquiry into the fiasco are expected to be published later.
The problems first surfaced after Epping migrant hotel resident and sex offender Hadush Kebatu was let out of HMP Chelmsford on October 24 and arrested in north London after a two-day manhunt. It was followed by further cases.
Mr Lammy, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, was heavily criticised in November for his evasive performance while standing in for Keir Starmer at PMQs.
Mr Lammy was branded a ‘clown’ by opponents after refusing to answer directly whether another foreign offender had been let out by mistake – only for the truth to be confirmed minutes later.
He also compounded the confusion by suggesting he had spent the morning out suit shopping instead of dealing with the crisis.
Defending his blustering performance at PMQs, Mr Lammy said: ‘I made a judgment that I would wait until I had all the detail, rather than risk giving an accurate or incomplete or misleading picture to the House about a sensitive case.’
He offered an ‘unequivocal apology’ to anyone who had suffered due to the errors.
But he claimed it was ‘unsurprising’ that mistakes took place in a prison system that is ‘underfunded, unstaffed and operating under relentless strain’.
The following week there was more confusion over the number of prisoners who had been wrongly let out.
The then Conservative Shadow Justice Secretary, Robert Jenrick, dubbed them ‘Lammy’s lags’, and accused the Labour minister of being ‘so clueless he’s literally lost track of how many prisoners he’s lost’.
The latest figures show that prisoners have continued to be freed by mistake since then.
There were 16 released in error in November, eight in December, eight in January, 10 in February and another eight in March.
The sexual offences committed by Ethiopian national Kebatu – the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping, Essex – took place while he was being housed at the taxpayers’ expense at a migrant hotel.
It sparked anti-immigration protests at the Bell Hotel in the town.
Kebatu was jailed for 12 months on September 23 last year.
But just over a month later, on October 24, he was mistakenly freed from HMP Chelmsford in Essex rather than being transferred to an immigration detention centre to be deported.
After a three-day manhunt Kebatu was arrested in Finsbury Park, north London.
