'They have lost all hope': The 'scandal' jail sentence with a 'shameful' suicide rate behind the Strangeways roof protest
16.04.2023 - 18:21
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
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.
READ MORE: TikTok rap videos of Strangeways prisoner who staged rooftop protest
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