Prisoners serving controversial indeterminate sentences were given minimum terms of less than six months but have remained in jail for at least 16 years, newly released data shows.
A total of five inmates serving sentences known as imprisonment for public protection (IPP) in England and Wales were handed tariffs less than six months, Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data shows.
A further 15 prisoners also serving IPP sentences were given tariffs of between six months and a year, while another 47 received tariffs of between a year and 18 months. None have been released from jail. A tariff is the minimum amount of time that a prisoner must spend in jail.
Campaigners said the MoJ figures, which emerged in a parliamentary question, were “horrendous” and meant that the five people who might have been released after a few weeks may have served nearly two decades in prison.
Ungripp, a campaign group that represents families of prisoners serving IPP sentences, said its members were shocked to hear that some people still in jail had been given tariffs of less than six months.
“As a support organisation we are not in contact with any of the people who were given a tariff of less than 12 months. They may have given up hope of ever getting released so they do not see any point in getting support. They will have served a minimum of 16 years, possibly even 19 years. This is horrendous, particularly when they were given such a short tariff,” a spokesperson said.
Nearly 3,000 prisoners are languishing in prison after being given IPP sentences. Most of these have been released on probation and later recalled, but about a third have never been released.
Prisoners given a minimum tariff of less than six months were sentenced before 2008, when the then Labour government halted the use of IPP sentences for prisoners given short tariffs.
IPP sentences were introduced in 2005 and scrapped in 2012 after human rights concerns were raised, but not for those already detained. It is believed that about 90 IPP prisoners have taken their own life when serving their sentence or on licence.
The Guardian has reported on the case of Tommy Nicol, who told prison authorities that his sentence was the “psychological torture of a man doing 99 years”. Nicol, who stole a car, was refused parole twice before killing himself in 2015.
The figures emerged in a reply to a parliamentary question from Kim Johnson, the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside who has campaigned for the resentencing of IPP prisoners.
The justice minister Nic Dakin said that of the 1,095 IPP prisoners who had never been released by June this year, five had been given a tariff of less than six months.
The minister said 121 prisoners of that cohort received tariffs of between 18 months and less than two years; 253 prisoners received tariffs of between two years and three years; and 372 – just under one-third of the cohort – received tariffs of between five and 10 years.
A 2022 report by the justice select committee urged the government to resentence all IPP prisoners, but this was rejected.
Steve Gillan, the general secretary of the Prison Officers’ Association, said: “If ministers followed what the justice select committee has asked for, they would be reviewing each individual sentence of these five men.”
The justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has said she will re-examine the treatment of IPP prisoners. Later this week, the prisons minister, James Timpson, is expected to announce that more than 1,000 IPP offenders on probation in the community will have their licences terminated with immediate effect.
To be eligible, offenders will have to have been released from custody at least five years ago and not been recalled for the last two years.
An MoJ spokesperson said: “With public protection as the number one priority, the Lord Chancellor is working with organisations and campaign groups to ensure appropriate action is taken to support those still serving these sentences, such as improved access to mental health support and rehabilitation programmes.
“We are also significantly shortening licence periods for rehabilitated offenders to give them the chance to move on with their lives.”
If you have any information about the five prisoners serving IPP sentences who were given tariffs of less than six months, please email rajeev.syal@theguardian.com
