Last year I tried to lay to rest a ghost that has haunted four successive governments: the fate of those still in prison under imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences. The sentences, now widely acknowledged as both wrong in principle and unworkable in practice, were described by the former supreme court justice Lord Brown as the “greatest single stain on our criminal justice system” and by David Blunkett as the “biggest regret” of his time in government. Yet, as I quickly found out, there is still a lack of political will to end this injustice – and neither the government nor the opposition supported my amendment to the victims and prisoners bill.
IPP sentences were introduced in 2003 as a new form of custodial sentence. Designed to appear tough on crime, they were indeterminate sentences that could be given to offenders who had committed violent or sexual offences and were deemed to pose a significant risk of causing harm to the public. Unlike a normal sentence, those given an IPP sentence would have to serve a minimum tariff in prison before being detained for an indefinite period until they could prove to the Parole Board that they were no longer a risk.
