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Nova Scotia's justice minister came under sharp attack Friday after admitting that a simple clerical error led to another accidental release of a convicted felon.

Cecil Clarke brushed aside opposition calls for his resignation following the latest in a series of blunders that have seen at least three criminals mistakenly freed over the last year.

But the minister conceded that the inmate involved in the most recent incident was allowed to wander away from a courthouse when he should have been returned to custody because a box on the paperwork wasn't marked properly.

“Human error does occur,” he told reporters. “I'm not going to vilify a staff if they've made a legitimate error. We will investigate that.”

Police said the man voluntarily turned himself in late Thursday and has been returned to the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth.

The 20-year-old, who was convicted of break and enter, theft and gun charges, appeared in court on an assault charge on Sept. 24 and was supposed to return to jail but was released instead.

It was only when the Crown attorney called justice officials to inquire about a sentencing date that the error was detected and staff realized the man was roaming free.

The case renewed demands from the Liberal justice critic that Mr. Clarke step aside to restore confidence in a system that has also included one high-profile prisoner escape.

Michel Samson said Mr. Clarke had pledged earlier this year to clean up the system after another inmate was mistakenly released under circumstances similar to this latest incident.

“Why should anyone still have confidence in the minister of justice when he already told us this spring he was going to make necessary changes to make sure this doesn't happen again and, lo and behold, it happens again?” he said.

“This government has been embarrassed.”

Three men were mistakenly freed within weeks of one another in December and January, sparking public alerts and an investigation by the province.

One of the man who had been accidentally freed was allegedly in possession of a loaded gun when RCMP found him during a traffic stop in January.

The province came under scrutiny for waiting 11 days before informing the public about the mistake.

A rape suspect was also released from a Cape Breton correctional facility the same month in what officials called an internal communications glitch.

And another man accused of assault walked away from the Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Truro in mid-December in what the justice minister described as a mix-up with paperwork.

And a man being held on charges of attempted murder and hostage-taking got free of his leg irons and ran to freedom as he was being escorted to a Halifax hospital.

The incidents prompted an external review that Mr. Clarke said will likely be released in a couple of weeks, something the Opposition NDP said should have been available long ago.

“Nova Scotians are losing faith in the system particularly when a man or woman is sent to jail, you expect them to be kept there,” said NDP justice critic Bill Estabrooks.

“It's time the minister ... releases the report and gets the recommendations out there so we can look at what happened.”