A man attempted to hand himself into a police station to avoid sleeping in a hostel with sex offenders.
Lee Armstrong, 41, was released from prison five weeks ago. He had been locked up for the past 18 years for robbery after stealing a mobile phone from someone in a pub.
His lengthy prison term was a result of an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPPS) sentence, first introduced in April 2005. These types of sentences have been set up to protect members of the public from serious offenders whose crimes did not merit a life sentence, Hull Live reports.
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Instead, offenders serve a minimum term which they must spend in prison. Upon completing their sentence they can apply to the Parole Board for release where they can either be given parole on supervised licence for at least 10 years or be outright refused for parole. Lee was originally given three years in jail - but remained inside for 15 more years.
Since his eventual release five weeks ago, Lee has not committed an offence or breached his licence. But he has been housed at a Psychologically Informed Planned Environment (PIPE) Pipeline Hostel in York which provides accommodation for lifers on their release. He claims that he has been housed with sex offenders and can no longer take it and says prison seems like a better choice than the hostel, where he hears horror stories of what his fellow residents have committed.
As Lee exited a car with his girlfriend to head to the police station, he said: "I’m at the police station handing myself in for absolutely nothing. “I have been housed with n****s (sex offenders). Gotta go back to jail. I had got my life sorted out, I’ve got a good family. I’m doing well but it is still not good enough. It’s an absolute joke.”
Mum's campaign for justice against IPP
Lee's mum, Kay, has been a long-running and campaigning advocate for improving IPP prisoner's situations. She claims they have been abandoned by the justice system.
“Nearly 18 years ago Lee got into some bother in a pub and snatched a mobile phone off someone and that was classed as robbery,” Kay said. “He had got into trouble as a teenager including robbing someone of their bike so this was his third strike.
“He was jailed under the Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) scheme with a recommendation of three years in prison. This system was supposed to be used for horrific paedophiles and murderers, the really bad criminals, but judges started dishing them out for the three strikes rule which meant those with low-level offences like Lee ended up under the scheme.
“I thought he would be out after a year and a half but here we are 18 years later. I’ll admit Lee should not have done what he did and he was wrong but this was a cruel, cruel sentence.”
Lee was released on one previous occasion but broke his curfew. But his mum feels that IPPs prisoners have been set up for failure by the justice system.
"He didn’t know when he would come out,” she said. “He had a few parole hearings and was not released. He likes working out and one time they even said he was too big and would be a threat if released.
“He was released two and a half years ago but there was a legionnaire’s disease break out at the hostel he was housed in. We managed to get him a flat on Beverley Road but he was under an 8pm curfew and came back at 9.30pm one night. He was sent back to prison for breaching the curfew.”
She also claimed that Lee was housed with 12 paedophiles in the hostel upon his latest release. “It has taken more than two years to get him released again but he has been sent to a hostel in York which includes lifers such as serious sex offenders,” Kay said. “There are 12 paedophiles in there and he could not take living with them.
“How can they keep sex offenders segregated from other inmates in prison but they all mix in a hostel? He hears them talking about what they have done and he cannot take it. He has pleaded for help and now feels he has no choice but to hand himself back into the police and go back to jail before he does something."
I have emailed a few politicians raising this issue but no one, it seems, can help,” she said. “When the IPPs were scrapped there were around 5,000 prisoners who the authorities didn’t know what to do with.
“Lee has done his time and now he should be allowed to just get on with his life and make his own mistakes. He will be on licence for ten years. What they are doing is putting up barriers on their release and setting them up to fail and make mistakes.
“Around 95 per cent of IPP prisoners end up getting recalled because they cannot deal with the outside world and the restrictions in place. His daughter was just a baby when he went inside and now she is a 21-year-old woman. Lee just wants to live a normal life but he is being stopped from doing that and now he is going back inside.”
Lee's girlfriend Kara Cunningham has also spoken of her heartbreak after taking him to the police station.
"While he was at York I would drive up to him everyday and bring him back to Hull before driving him back on time," she said. ""But one day he broke down mentally and told me he couldn't be there (at the hostel) anymore.
"He talked to staff and took himself out of the situation as he was not comfortable being around child abusers. He wanted to move in with me and start a new life but who knows what will happen now."
The Probation Service insist Lee agreed to the hostel placement and say it was the best way for him to readjust to life outside of prison. It added that there are only two PIPE premises in the region, which is why he was sent to York.
It further confirmed that PIPE hostels do house sex offenders as well as violent criminals - it claims thee hostels are used to rehabilitate offenders who require strict supervision. A spokeswoman said: “This individual asked to be placed at this approved premises during his parole application because he agreed the specialist support they provided would help turn his back on crime.
“Despite our efforts to help him he has breached his licence conditions and been recalled to prison as a result.”
The Parole Board confirmed Lee had been released and explained how the system works.
A spokesperson for the Parole Board said: “We can confirm that a panel of the Parole Board has directed the release of Lee Armstrong in December following an oral hearing. Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community.
“Evidence from witnesses including probation officers, psychiatrists and psychologists, officials supervising the offender in prison as well as victim personal statements are then given at the hearing.
“The prisoner and witnesses are then questioned at length during the hearing which often lasts a full day or more. Parole reviews are undertaken thoroughly and with extreme care. Protecting the public is our number one priority.”
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