Quakers lobby MPs on prison sentences
‘The strain on both prisoners and their families is intolerable.’
Quakers in Criminal Justice (QICJ) and Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) briefed MPs ahead of a debate on indeterminate sentences last week. The debate on 27 April followed a conclusion last September from the UK parliament’s Justice Committee that Imprisonment for Public Protection Sentences (IPPs) caused profound psychological harm and mental torture. All remaining IPP prisoners should be re-sentenced, they said.
Before a Westminster Hall debate on that report, Quakers told thirty-six MPs interested in criminal justice that the sentences must end.
The Ministry of Justice’s failure to accept the Justice Committee’s core recommendations was indefensible, they said, adding: ‘The strain on both prisoners and their families is intolerable.’
IPPs were introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 2003 under David Blunkett, the then home secretary. These sentences, abolished in 2012, allowed for an unlimited period of detention followed by release under life licence, where the offender could be returned to prison at any point.
Around 3,000 people remain subject to their original IPP sentences and hundreds are still in jail, despite serving five times the minimum sentence.
