Indeterminate sentences opposed
'Three-quarters of recalls last year did not involve charges of further offence.'
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has urged the government to re-sentence people who have been given indeterminate sentences.
The call comes after new figures show that hundreds of those affected by Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences have been recalled to prison despite not being charged with a further offence. Three-quarters of recalls last year did not involve charges of further offence, a Freedom of Information (FoI) request found – a number which is up almost a third since 2015.
The FoI request was made by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies.
BYM said on the Quakers in Britain website that ‘thousands remain suspended “in perpetual purgatory” thanks to cruel and dangerous imprisonment for public protection sentences. More than a decade after IPPs were abolished, we call on the Ministry of Justice to re-sentence these offenders now.’
Nearly 3,000 people remain subject to their original IPP sentences and hundreds are still in jail, despite serving five times the minimum sentence. More than half of the remaining unreleased IPP prisoners have been held for at least ten years beyond the end of their tariff.
Under IPPs, introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and abolished in 2012, offenders received unlimited periods of detention. Even after release, they could be returned to prison at any point for the rest of their lives. Yet, last September, parliament’s Justice Committee found that IPP sentences caused profound psychological harm and mental torture, and recommended that all remaining IPP prisoners should be re-sentenced. The Ministry of Justice failed to accept their core recommendations.
Melanie Jameson, clerk of Quakers in Criminal Justice, which, together with BYM, briefed MPs on the dangers of these sentences earlier this year, said: ‘We continue to feel a deep concern for IPP prisoners, whose hope for a resolution of their discredited and discontinued sentence has been squashed by an intransigent Ministry of Justice.
‘We fear suicide numbers will rise for those living with an IPP, aptly nicknamed “In Perpetual Purgatory”.’
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