More than 1,800 offenders in England and Wales who have been released on licence but remain under indefinite threat of recall to jail are to have their sentences terminated.
Imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences, which were imposed on 8,711 people, were abolished in 2012 but not retrospectively, leaving people languishing in prison, often for minor offences, and have been described as “the greatest single stain on the justice system”.
Even when released, IPP offenders are on indefinite licence, meaning they can be recalled at any time, often for behaviour that is not criminal, leading to what has been labelled a “recall merry-go-round”.
However, changes announced by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on Tuesday mean that for the first time some IPP offenders will be given an end date for their sentence.
Currently their only option to have their sentence terminated is to apply to the Parole Board 10 years after release. The changes, added to the victims and prisoners bill, will reduce that period to three years after release, and even if the Parole Board says no their sentence will automatically terminate after a further two years if they are not recalled to jail in that time.
As the changes will apply retrospectively, the MoJ said sentences would immediately end for about 1,800 offenders on licence in the community once the legislation comes into force. It said a further 800 IPP offenders would become newly eligible for Parole Board consideration by March 2025 and the new legislation would also introduce a presumption that the board should terminate the licence unless it was still required to protect the public.
The justice secretary, Alex Chalk, said: “We are taking decisive action to curtail IPP licence periods to give rehabilitated people the opportunity to move on with their lives, while continuing to make sure the public are protected from the most serious offenders.
“This is a major step towards wiping away the stain of IPP sentences from our justice system, without compromising public protection.”
Despite widespread criticism of IPP sentences – David Blunkett, who introduced them as Labour home secretary, has previously admitted “I got it wrong” – there has been growing frustration among campaigners, prisoners and their relatives about the lack of progress in addressing their legacy.
Last year, in a report that described IPP sentences as “irredeemably flawed” and said they fuelled feelings of hopelessness and despair as well as high levels of self-harm and some suicides among prisoners, the justice select committee called for all IPP prisoners to be resentenced – but this was rejected by the government.
While the changes announced by Chalk, the most significant since IPP sentences were abolished, were broadly welcomed, there was frustration that they would not affect those now stuck behind bars for offences as minor as stealing a mobile phone.
Shirley Debono, the founder of the campaign group IPP Committee in Action, said: “While we acknowledge the proposed changes and recognise that many individuals will welcome the news of the new proposed license reforms, it is essential to highlight that the government appears to be dancing around the IPP problem and avoiding the core solution, which involves resentencing all IPP prisoners – a recommendation proposed by both the justice committee and the UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
“It is crucial for the government and the public to keep in mind that, despite these licence reforms, numerous IPP’s remain unreleased.”
Ungripp, a pressure group representing the families of those jailed under IPP rules, said: “Allowing people serving IPP the prospect of a definite end date to their sentence would be a restoration of hope, certainty, clarity and sense.
“However, we are gravely disappointed that no reforms are proposed for people trapped in prison on IPP – some as many as 18 years over tariff. Nobody should do 18 years longer than a judge deemed fair, in a system that time and again has proven itself unable to meet their needs.
“Today is only one step along the road to truly restoring justice, and we hope the justice secretary will consider going a step further to finally put an end to this injustice.”
As of 30 September there were 2,921 IPP prisoners, 1,269 of whom have never been released, with the remaining 1,652 having been recalled to custody. The justice select committee said in its report there were 608 who were at least 10 years over their original minimum tariff, of whom 188 were originally given a minimum sentence of less than two years.
