In a rare act of grace, for a politician, Lord Blunkett last month admitted he made a mistake 20 years ago. He was the Labour Home Secretary who introduced new legislation to get tough on crime.
Indeterminate sentencing for public protection (IPP) was introduced by him in 2005 to protect the public from dangerous and persistent offenders. It meant a life sentence could be given for 153 crimes, including affray and criminal damage.
Between 2005 and 2013 8,711 people in England and Wales were given an IPP sentence. They were scrapped in 2012 on the back of a European Court ruling that they breached human rights - on the grounds that prisons had failed to provide inmates access to the rehabilitation courses required to demonstrate to the Parole Board that they were safe to be released.
But the abolition wasn't retrospective, so today, even though more and more IPP prisoners are being released, there remains just under 2,892 still locked up on an IPP sentence. Of those 1,394 have never been released from prison. The majority (57 percent) of the remain IPP prisoners have served more than nine years beyond their original tariff. There are 1,498 IPP prisoners on recall to prison.
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The perceived lack of hope of ever being released has meant 81 prisoners on IPP sentences have taken their own lives. And, last autumn a report published by the Parliamentary Justice Committee said that IPP sentences are "irredeemably flawed" and that the prisoners still serving them should be resentenced.
However, Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab ruled out any resentencing of IPP prisoners in February, instead saying that they should pass the 'parole test' to prove they no longer represent a risk. The feeling that 'there's no light at the end of the tunnel' lay behind a 12-hour roof-top protest at Strangeways by prisoner Joe Outlaw this week.
Outlaw was given an IPP sentence in 2011 for robbery and was told he must serve a minimum of six years. On appeal that tariff was reduced to four and a half years. But he has remained in jail and has committed other offences while in custody.
His parole hearing was set for April 25, but he was due to be sentenced on April 13 for admitting causing criminal damage to his cell in HMP Hindley - wrecking any chance of parole.
In January last year, in a separate case, he had been given a 16-month sentence for trashing his cell, causing £17,000 worth of damage.
David Bentley, who was representing Outlaw told the court in that hearing: “He regards his actions [as if] he is subject to a regime with his sentence that means, to his mind, there’s no light at the end of the tunnel — but the irony of that is that his offences mean there’s a delay in the parole board being able to assess him. It’s a vicious cycle.”
A spokesperson for United Group For Reform of IPP (UNGRIPP) which campaigns of behalf of prisoners and ex-prisoners, told the Manchester Evening News: "Two months ago, the Justice Secretary rejected the Justice Select Committee’s recommendation to resentence people serving IPP to a fair sentence available under current law.
"This has driven many people serving IPP to a complete loss of hope. We have since heard of four people taking their own life, and (this week) we watched as a man put his own life at risk by climbing onto the roof of Manchester prison to plead for freedom. People have lost all hope and they are desperate.
"The Ministry of Justice’s lack of meaningful action is deeply concerning. Their own statistics show that the IPP population is rising again for the first time since it was abolished; that people are serving longer on recall; and that self-inflicted deaths last year were the highest since the sentence was introduced. The IPP sentence is a costly waste of money, and more importantly of human lives. The Government appears blind to the fact that all the indicators show IPP cannot simply be managed away. It must be abolished once and for all."
In a statement UNGRIPP said: "There are 2,892 people still in prison. The number of people serving IPP in prison has increased for the first time since 2012: the year the sentence was abolished. This reverses a steady downward trend. 1,498 people are in prison on recall and 1,394 people have never been released from prison. The number of people who are 10 or more years over tariff and have never been released has increased by 2 percent since 2021."
The group says that 174 people on IPP sentences have died in prison from natural causes and 81 people have taken their own lives while in prison "There were nine self-inflicted deaths of people serving IPP in 2022. This is the highest number of self-inflicted deaths in a single year since IPP was introduced," said the group.
They added: "Almost all key indicators are moving in the wrong direction The number of people serving an IPP in prison has increased; there are more people serving an IPP who are still in prison 10 or more years beyond their tariff; release rates for people serving an IPP are decreasing; yearly suicides for those serving an IPP are at the highest ever recorded.
"This is clear evidence that supports the main conclusion of the Justice Select Committee: that the IPP sentence is simply not fit for purpose and cannot function as intended. The above picture is deeply worrying given the increased attention to IPP last year, and the Ministry of Justice’s claims that their action plan is effective. This should have led to improvements, but it has not. IPP continues to inflict enormous mental suffering. The number of suicides is completely shameful and unacceptable.
"We think it is highly likely that suicides will increase still further if the Justice Select Committee’s recommendation of resentencing is not enacted. It is clear that IPP cannot simply be managed out within the system as it stands. Managerial solutions are not working, and continue to subject people serving IPP to gross injustice and loss of hope."
Speaking to the Home Affairs Committee last month Lord Blunkett said: "Twenty years ago...we put in place the imprisonment for public protection in the belief there would be therapeutic courses; there would be measures taken within the prison service that would enable those who were released to stay freely in the community without committing further crime. That part of the Act has clearly failed, and it has failed on a number of fronts."
He added: "It is very rare in politics to get the chance to try and do something to redeem something you got wrong. There is great cross-party agreement in the House of Lords in trying to do something to put this right."
Urging the Justice Secretary to take action to tackle the situation he added: "Forensic pyschologists at the time, 20 years ago, thought there was a real case for the IPP and now like I do, realise it was a mistake. Their point is that the longer these prisoners are in prison or on licence the more likely it is that rehabilitation will fail."
Mr Raab responded by saying: "That's exactly the snare that the policy has left for government's to try and deal with. I think forecasting risk in some of these very complicated cases - particularly when compounded by years in prison - is inherently difficult. But I'm afraid that is why I take a cautionary approach."
Mr Raab told the committee: "I think the IPP sentences were a mistake and we have changed the law. The question is what do we do with those that have alredy been sentenced. I still believe the action plan we put forward is the best way - trying to prepare those offenders subject to IPP sentences to be able to pass the parole test that they are no longer a risk to the public.
"I don't agree with the proposal to resentence them whether with a panel or otherwise. We inherited 6,000 IPP offenders in 2012. The number of unreleased IPP's now stands at 1,394. I want to get that number down. I recognise that this was a mistake in policy, but I want to do so in the right way. As ever I am focused on risk."
Commenting on the policy of recalling IPP prisoners to prison if they breach their licence conditions Lord Blunkett told the Justice Secretary: "Isn't it simply true that we put greater pressure on your already beleaguered prison system by recalling people who then return on the original IPP sentence - not sentenced on the actual breach?"
In a statement the Ministry of Justice said: "On 30 September 2022 there were 1,437 prisoners on IPP sentences who had never been released down from over 6,000 when the sentence was abolished in 2012.
"IPP sentences were handed down by judges who decided offenders posed a significant risk to the public. The independent Parole Board must judge if a prisoner serving an IPP sentence is safe for release, and the MoJ cannot comment about individual decisions they have made.
"The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 requires the Secretary of State to automatically refer IPP offenders to the Parole Board for consideration for licence termination where 10 years has elapsed since their first release. A record number of parole hearings were held between 2020/21, with more than 16,000 cases concluded – this includes IPP hearings, with most happening remotely."
READ MORE:
- Strangeways protester sentenced for trashing prison cell hours after climbing down from the roof
- Prisoner who staged 12-hour protest on Strangeways roof is named as Joe Outlaw
- Strangeways 'locked down' with prisoners returned to their cells after inmate got onto roof
- Strangeways protestor daubs 'FREE IPPZ' on tjhe roof - what the sentence means and why it's so controversial
- Strangeways prisoner 'wearing a binbag' makes love heart gesture to camera as he shouts from rooftop
