HUNDREDS of inmates have gone missing from the north's prisons over the past decade.
Between 2007 and late 2015, prisoners went on the run more than 200 times, with some remaining at large for several years.
In most cases inmates failed to return after taking part in various types of temporary release schemes.
Of the 218 incidents of prisoners being unlawfully at large, 95 involved Magilligan medium-security jail, 93 were inmates at Maghaberry high-security prison and 30 at Hydebank, which houses female prisoners and young offenders.
The figures, released to news website The Detail, showed that the majority failed to return while on home leave. In most cases it was for a few days, but one prisoner went missing from Maghaberry in 2009 for four years.
According to the Department of Justice website, there were last night a total of six inmates unlawfully at large including murder suspect Michael Lawrence Smith.
His disappearance comes after a man went missing for months while on bail charged in connection with the 2012 murder of prison officer David Black.
Damien McLaughlin (40), from the Ardboe area of Co Tyrone, was arrested last week in Co Donegal. He was granted bail in May 2014 but had not been seen by police since last November.
The release of Michael Smith is not the first time someone has been let out of jail by mistake.
On four occasions between 2010 and 2015, prisoners were released early – two in 2010 who were on remand, and one in 2012 while being held on an immigration order.
The fourth was mistakenly released early from Maghaberry in 2011 while serving a six-month sentence for assault and possession of a dangerous weapon.
Prison chiefs have also faced criticism in recent years for using dated photographs of on-the-run prisoners during appeals for information on their whereabouts.
In 2015 a picture of Thomas Valliday, who murdered west Belfast father-of-two Frank 'Bap' McGreevy in 2008, was released after he escaped from prison staff during a hospital visit.
But Mr McGreevy's family branded the appeal a "joke" after authorities used a seven-year-old photo of the Maghaberry life-sentence prisoner.
The Department of Justice released a more recent photo after being contacted by The Irish News and issued an apology. Valliday was later arrested in Belfast after four days on the run.
