The number of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) offenders who have been recalled to jail despite not being charged with a further offence has soared in recent years, accounting for almost three-quarters of returns last year.
Under the widely discredited England and Wales scheme, which was abolished in 2012 but not retrospectively, offenders were given a frequently low minimum jail tariff but no maximum one, and were released on indefinite licence, meaning they can be recalled at any point.
A report by parliament’s justice committee last year found that as well as new offences, reasons for recalling IPP offenders included missing or being late for appointments and a lack of suitable accommodation or mental health support in the community.
A freedom of information (FoI) request by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS) found that 461 of 625 recalls of IPP offenders last year did not involve a charge of further offence. The proportion was up by almost a third on 2015, when the respective figures were 205 and 363.
The director of the CCJS, Richard Garside, said: “I am shocked that ever more IPP prisoners who have successfully secured their release are being sent back to prison for no good reason. This injustice must be devastating for hundreds of IPP prisoners and their families.
“While the government claims that it has a plan to solve the IPP scandal, it continues to preside over a processing machine that is churning people in and out of prison with no clear end in sight.”
The FoI response showed there were more IPP recalls in each year from 2018 to 2021, peaking at 710 in 2019, but the figure of 461 recalls in 2022 not involving a further offence charge was the highest in the eight years for which data was provided. The next highest was 439 in 2019.
According to the latest figures, there are 2,909 IPP prisoners, of whom 1,597, more than half, have been recalled to custody. IPP offenders spend average of an additional 26 months in prison after being recalled before they are released on licence again. The indefinite licence is only reviewed 10 years after release.
Donna Mooney, the co-founder of the pressure group Ungripp, said: “People serving IPP and their families should not have to suffer an additional two years’ incarceration for what are mostly breaches rather than further crimes. Recall has devastating consequences, and in the last two years the number of self-inflicted deaths by people serving IPP on recall has outnumbered those never released from prison.
“The justice select committee was clear that the root causes of recall need addressing. People need proper support and should not be punished for mental health, accommodation, substance and resettlement struggles. That is not justice.”
The justice committee’s report said there had been “a considerable amount of evidence, including from the Parole Board, about lack of availability of approved premises and suitable accommodation being a central reason for recall”.
Sara Ramsden said her partner, Rob Dutton, had been recalled four times, including once because he told doctors he was considering reusing drugs, having been given an IPP sentence with a minimum term of one year and 298 days in 2008 for assault.
Dutton has currently been out on licence for 18 months, but Ramsden said: “You’re constantly on edge, your mental health is impacted massively because you just have no idea when and if it’s going to come to an end.
“Once you’ve been released and you know that there’s that chance and that power of recall again, that hangs over you. And if you go back in, you just spin around in a cycle and that’s part of the huge problem of IPP. Getting out is one problem, staying out is another problem.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Offenders are often recalled for breaching a licence condition and to prevent further offending from taking place when their risk to the public increases.”
