Failures in the prison and immigration services which led to the foreign prisoners scandal have still not been eliminated, a watchdog has warned.
Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers said there were "systemic failures" at all levels in the care of foreign inmates.
She called on ministers to address the "underlying causes" of the problems rather than reacting to the symptoms.
Most of the inspection team's fieldwork was completed before May's sacking of former home secretary Charles Clarke over the fiasco, which saw 1,019 foreign criminals, including murderers and rapists, being freed without being considered for deportation.
But Ms Owers said follow-up work carried out as late as September - after new Home Secretary John Reid set out recovery plans - showed there were still major problems.
"The prisons are getting better at looking after foreign prisoners but the indications from work we did in August and September was that systems and liaison with immigration were not sufficiently good," she said.
"That is a task still to be done and it is a task that we will press the Home Secretary to get done. I don't think we are there yet."
The report showed "widespread ignorance, confusion and concern" about immigration issues among staff and inmates.
There was "extreme frustration" in jails at the lack of support from the Home Office's Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND), it added.
Communication with foreign prisoners was difficult, with some officers reporting that a telephone translation service was too expensive to use.
Read More
MORE ABOUT