IPP Prisoners Familys Campaign: Biggest London Rally, March 7th House of Lords

IPP Prisoners Familys Campaign: Biggest London Rally, March 7th House of Lords: IPP VIDEO !!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHC9wAOSjW0 Update: ByBarrister Lorna Elliott, from insidetime issue March 2012 latest on I...

IPP Prisoners Familys Campaign: The following is a letter to insidetime, from issu...

IPP Prisoner MOTHER LETTER The following is a letter to insidetime, from issu...: I would like to thank Insidetimes for Pubishing my letter. My son is an IPP prisoner, shortly becoming one of hundreds long past their ta...

The following is a letter to insidetime, from issue March 2012 from A IPP prisoners mother.

My son is an IPP prisoner, shortly becoming one of hundreds long past their tariff laid down by the courts when he was sentenced, this comes as worrying news indeed. To me and other families, it is nothing short of devastation. The families and children of those incarcerated in an unjust and unfair penal system we are suffering as our loved ones remain in custody when they should have been given the chance of release long ago.

I am a mother who has also had a lifelong struggle with severe dyslexia. Despite learning difficulties I feel so strongly about the matter that I’m fighting back for all IPP Prisoners . I have petitioned Members of the House of Lords ,lords bishops ,archbishops , the Queen to ask them to take this forward ,and an amendment to be put down to the legal aid, sentences and punishment of offenders Bill.

I am very apprehensive if proposed reforms of the IPP sentence are rejected or if their implementation fails, we will see one of the biggest miscarriages of justice ever to take place in the UK.I find that this country now has so much criminal legislation that it is almost impossible for anyone to leave their home and get to work without breaking the law somewhere along the way. If they do break the law, people face some of the longest sentences in Europe.

I have created facebook groups , jointly with IPP prisoners family site to petition .

Full Article: IPP and Literacy - Letter to Inside Time Newspaper

www.insidetime.org

Mother.

PP Continues to plague the prison system

By Erica Restall , from insidetime issue March 2011

The purpose of this article is to provide prisoners with an overview of the current developments insofar as the controversial IPP sentences are concerned.

When IPP sentences were first introduced the courts had no discretion in cases where a specific legal test was met. The Government at the time believed that there would be no need to introduce additional resources in to the prison system to enable these new types of prisoner satisfy the criteria for release by the Parole Board i.e.: to demonstrate that their risk to the public had been reduced and they were suitable for release on expiry of their mandatory tariff.
How wrong they were! It very soon became clear that the resources in place were insufficient to cope with the massive influx of IPP prisoners and the system was very quickly swamped. Between November 2003 and March 2007, the lifer population increased from 5475 to 8977 with no corresponding increase in the number of first and second stage lifer prison places.
The net effect of this was to create a huge bottle-neck in the system. Many IPP prisoners reached tariff expiry without having undertaken any courses or activities to address their risk offending behaviour. Most of these prisoners remained detained in local prisons which did not provide such facilities, with no hope of moving to a first stage lifer prison to commence the sentence planning process.The Government did attempt to address this problem through the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. This made IPP sentences no longer mandatory and only applicable where the minimum tariff imposed was 2 or more years.
Despite these changes, the problems within the system continue with prisoners unable to progress through the prison system and unable to access sentence planning and appropriate courses to address offending behaviour. It is only likely to get worse with budget cuts.
A claim for judicial review was brought against the Ministry of Justice in several cases in 2007. An appeal was finally brought before by the House of Lords in R (James and others) v Secretary of State for Justice [2009] UKHL 22; [2009] 2 WLR 1149. The House agreed with the lower courts in concluding that the Secretary of State had failed in its public law duty to put into place systems and resources necessary to furnish the IPP system. But the House did not go further to say that this failure meant that those prisoners detained post tariff were detained unlawfully and should be released. Similarly, the House did not consider that there had been breach of either Article 5(1) or 5(4) of the European Convention of Human Rights.
I lodged, together with solicitors for Stephensons and Russell and Russell, an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg against the decision of the House of Lords in relation Article 5(1) and 5(4) in July 2009. This is in James and others v UK. It is argued that the failure of the UK Government to put in place necessary resources to enable an IPP prisoner to demonstrate to the Parole Board that he is of reduced risk, makes detention of that individual post tariff contrary to the right to liberty under Article 5(1) and that a Parole Board hearing in those circumstances cannot be a meaningful review of the legality of post-tariff detention and so contrary to Article 5(4).
I am pleased to say that after an 18 month wait, the European Court has permitted the case to proceed. Last year only 37% of cases were allowed beyond this stage. This means that the Court accepts that this is a matter which requires closer scrutiny. The UK Government has now been asked to respond to our claim. Their response is expected in April. Thereafter, we will have 6 weeks to respond to the Government, following which the Court will make a decision. It is difficult to say when this will be.
If the UK Government wins then that will be the end of the matter. If, however, our claim is successful then (depending on what basis the Court has found a violation) the Court will issue a declaration that the IPP system is incompatible with the European Convention. As signatories to the ECHR the UK Government will then be required to take action to protect the rights of IPP prisoners. This may mean putting in place more resources, courses etc, allowing prisoners to bring compensation claims or it may go so far as to require the release of certain IPP prisoners who are post tariff.
Whilst the problem of IPP prisoners continues to plague the prison system, all I can say is watch this space…

Erica Restall, Solicitor for Mr James, Switalskis Solicitors LLP
Link http://www.insidetime.org/articleview.asp?a=917&c=ipp_continues_to_plague_the_prison_system

I would like to thank Insidetimes for Pubishing my letter.A big thank you goes to Lorna elliott  Barrister & sponsor for ipp prisoners campaign & petition Prison Law, Criminal Law - Contact 02071932444 
Conrad and Amander Goodhill.https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002699840021&ref=ts

Biggest London Rally, March 7th House of Lords

Caption By Katherine Gleeson.

IPP VIDEO !!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHC9wAOSjW0

Update: ByBarrister Lorna Elliott, from insidetime issue March 2012  latest on IPPs

Those currently serving IPP sentences may not be aware of the huge amount of campaigning that is taking place to raise awareness of the injustices of the IPP sentence. There are numerous online campaigns, countless petitions, and many hundreds of people who have been writing to MPs and others to raise awareness of these inhumane sentences, and the way in which they damage public trust in the justice system and destroy hope for the future. It is of note that Members of the House of Lords during the Committee stage of the Bill mentioned the ‘countless’ letters they had received about the injustice of the IPP sentence.

A common theme of discussion amongst IPP campaigners is that the general public is still largely unaware of the structure of these sentences and how unfair they are on both the prisoner and their loved ones. It is hoped that the significant efforts that are being made with various campaigns will go a considerable way to educating the general public on the failure of these sentences. One campaign group, the ‘IPP Prisoners Families Campaign’, organized a march in central London at the end of January and a further protest has been scheduled for March 7th. The details are available elsewhere in this edition of Inside Time.

Lorna Elliott is a barrister at Lound Mulrenan Jefferies Solicitors.


Read the full article:
http://www.insidetime.org/articleview.asp?a=1159&c=ipp_update

Ipp campaign Video, by Amanda Goodhill.

 ipp campaign.wmv

www.youtube.com


 

IPP Prisoners Familys Campaign: Lorna elliott llb hons - Barrister & sponsor for i...

IPP Prisoners Familys Campaign: Lorna elliott llb hons - Barrister & sponsor for i...: Campaigning for the abolition of the IPP sentence and for release of all those currently serving IPP. More than 2500 people in prison toda...

End indeterminate sentences: Please act urgently now

Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection (IPPs), which keep thousands of people indefinitely in prison long after they have been punished for their offence, inflict needless misery and injustice on IPP prisoners and their families.  They urgently need to be replaced by a fairer system of sentencing.  The Justice Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, has promised to do just that by an amendment to be tabled soon to a Bill that is now before Parliament.  There’s a danger that Ken Clarke’s unpopularity with the right wing of the Conservative party and the more rabid of the tabloids, and right-wing distrust of his enlightened proposals for penal reform generally, may frighten No. 10 Downing Street, the Home Secretary, the Labour opposition and even the LibDem members of the coalition government into opposing the replacement of IPPs, forcing Ken Clarke either to abandon it or to water it down in a way that could make it virtually meaningless.

So now is the moment for all liberal-minded people who recognise the indefensible injustice of IPPs to take urgent action to stiffen the government’s support for its own policy, and to encourage MPs to resist the inevitable clamour from the primitives on the Tory back benches and in the tabloids.  Please spare five or ten minutes to email or write a letter to your MP, especially if he or she is a LIbDem.  Here is a suggested form of words that you could either copy-and-paste into an email or letter, or else re-write in your own words:

IPPs: Suggested text of email or letter to your MP and other MPs

I am writing to you as my Member of Parliament to appeal for your support in Parliament for the earliest possible replacement of Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection (IPPs), as envisaged by the Justice Secretary, the Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke QC MP.  There are well over six thousand people with IPPs locked up indefinitely in our badly overcrowded prisons who have no idea when, if ever, they can hope to be released. Of these, well over 3,500 have already served their ‘tariffs’ (the punishment part of their sentences), and their numbers are growing.  They remain incarcerated not as punishment for any offence they have committed but because the Parole Boards can’t be satisfied that if released they won’t reoffend, which is obviously impossible for a prisoner to prove.  Only a minuscule proportion of the thousands of offenders given IPP sentences have ever been released, even when the original offence may have been relatively minor.

This is a form of preventive detention such as we have never before seen in Britain in peace-time and rarely even in wartime.  It contributes significantly to over-crowding in our prisons and causes resentment of its obvious injustice which makes rehabilitation far more difficult.  The uncertainty over any hope of ever being released causes misery amounting almost to torture for the wives, husbands, partners, parents and children of those who have been subjected to this nightmarish punishment.  Replacing it with fairer determinate sentences would help to relieve prison over-crowding, greatly reduce the agonising uncertainties that inflict such misery and injustice on IPP prisoners and their families, save public money, reduce reoffending, and remove an ugly blot on our system of justice.

I would be grateful if you would pass this message to the Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke QC MP, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, for his comments, in the hope that he will take urgent action in accordance with his undertaking to include provision for the replacement of IPPs by determinate sentences in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill which is now going through Parliament.

_____________________

You can get the name and email and postal addresses of your MP by visiting http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mps/ or http://www.writetothem.com/, or very often by Googling the MP’s name.  Please remember to include your name and address so that your MP can see that you are one of his or her constituents.  Even if you have written to your MP in the past about this, please write again now, perhaps referring to your earlier message and any reply that you received then.

To make your appeal even more effective, please send a copy of it for information to The Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP – Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Deputy Prime Minister, Lord President of the Council and MP for Sheffield Hallam, email address:  leader@libdems.org.uk, or by post to The Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, 4 Cowley Street, London SW1P 3NB.  In copying your message to Nick Clegg, please urge him to treat support for Kenneth Clarke’s proposal to replace IPPs as a non-negotiable condition for the LibDems remaining in the coalition government:  if the LibDems were to go along with a veto of this essential reform, they would lose all credibility as upholders of liberal principles.

You could also usefully copy your email or letter to the Labour Opposition’s shadow Justice Secretary, The Rt Hon Sadiq Khan MP, email address: sadiqkhanmp@parliament.uk, or by post to The Rt Hon Sadiq Khan MP, House of Commons, Westminster,  London SW1A 0AA. Alternatively email The Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP, milibande@parliament.uk, or write to The Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP, Leader of the Opposition, House of Commons, Westminster,  London SW1A 0pw. The Labour leadership has inexplicably been very lukewarm about Kenneth Clarke’s penal reform proposals, but you could point out to Ed Miliband or Sadiq Khan that there can be no possible justification for Labour not to support the replacement of IPPs against the likely opposition of illiberal right-wing elements with which Labour has nothing whatever in common.

If you have any doubts about the shocking injustice of indeterminate sentencess, please read the section on IPPs in an article by the barrister Philip Rule in the September issue of Inside Time, or any of the posts on the subject on this blog, such as here and here (including the comments appended to them, and my responses to the comments). There is also much useful information on the Facebook page of the Emmersons Solicitors’ campaign against IPPs, here.  (In response to recent comments on this blog I  suggested that it was a bad time to revive the campaign against IPPs at a time when Ken Clarke was embroiled in a controversy over the Human Rights Act and Theresa May’s cat, with the prime minister apparently backing Mrs May.  But the situation has changed completely in the last three or four days and it is absolutely essential to pile on the pressure now for IPPs to be replaced.)

Any day now the Justice Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, is expected to table an amendment to the Bill to include the replacement of IPPs along with his other sentencing reform proposals.  Here is an opportunity, not likely to be repeated, to do something concrete to influence events and to help to remove a monstrous blot on our criminal justice system.  Please take the time to act now, while there’s still time. 

Petition http://ippprisonerscampaign.webs.com/petition.htm

BriamBarder

  http://labourlist.org/2011/10/end-indeterminate-sentences-please-act-urgently-now/

Cradle to Prison pipline learning differculties Dyslexia other

1."Youths and adults with learning disabilities /learning differences or other impairments make up the majority of people in the prison justice system. Often they have passed through the education system that does not teach dysexics in ways that will enable them to access the learning or have gone unrecognised.

We must ensure schools and other services are properly equipped to identify and help these children - before they come into contact with the Prison justice system." a reporton Channel Four documentary tested inmates Almost all were being screened for learning difficulties for the first time. Half of them were discovered to have dyslexia.

Having struggled with Dyslexia myself I have become very interested and concerned about the number of inmates with literacy and numeracy problems, 80% of prisoners have poor writing skills, 50% have reading difficulties and 65% have trouble with numeracy. Half of all prisoners are at or below the level expected of an 11 year old in reading, two-thirds in numeracy and four-fifths in writing.

This can cause truancy and also misconduct, even to the point of expulsion from school, which would lead to poor performance and low exam results, if any results received at all.

“Nearly half of male sentenced prisoners were excluded from school and nearly a third of all prisoners were regular truants whilst at school and more than half of male and more than two-thirds of female adult prisoners have no qualifications at all.” It is therefore not inconceivable that an individual with a learning disability can leave school being unable to read and write, having no qualifications and little prospect of employment due to even seemingly small details of being unable to fill in an application form or read an article to find a job and this can become the start of a vicious circle, when there released there unable to get a job with a criminal record.

According to the Offenders Learning and Skills Unit in the Department for Education and Skills, just under a third of the prison population is attending education classes at any one time, half of all prisoners do not have the skills required by 96 per cent of jobs and over 50% were unemployed before imprisonment.The whole justice system is it helping or damaging the criminal. Surely we can't be that worse off. We are just not moving on with times. Some Criminals don't like to reoffend, but the system lets them down instead of helping them. I'm sure there is a lot of good in all of us if we channeled our efforts in the right direction.
We want to End the Ipp, more training and education!!!
http://ippfanilycampaign.blogspot.com/2012/02/lorna-elliott-llb-hons-barrister.html
Petition  http://ippprisonerscampaign.webs.com/petition.htm

2. Cradle to Prison pipline Black youth's http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWIsS5RBxJU&feature=player_embedded

IPP Prisoners Familys Campaign: IPP Public & MP / Lords Awareness Mission is the k...

IPP Prisoners Familys Campaign: IPP Public & MP / Lords Awareness Mission is the k...: Have you heard about IPP Prisoners, being kept in prison years and years past the sentence impossed by the Judge, British People...

IPP Prisoners Familys Campaign: Lorna elliott llb hons - Barrister & sponsor for i...

IPP Prisoners Familys Campaign: Lorna elliott llb hons - Barrister & sponsor for i...: Campaigning for the abolition of the IPP sentence and for release of all those currently serving IPP. More than 2500 people in prison toda...

Lorna elliott llb hons - Barrister & sponsor for ipp prisoners campaign & petition Prison Law, Criminal Law - Contact 02071932444

Campaigning for the abolition of the IPP sentence and for release of all those currently serving IPP.

More than 2500 people in prison today are stuck behind bars, post-tariff, and who yet are still without any clue as to when they will be released, or how they will ever prove that they can be released. Approximately 500 of these prisoners are two years post-tariff or more. A lot of these 500 wouldn’t have received an IPP had they been sentenced after July 2008, but to this day remain in custody with little hope of release. What makes this particularly unpalatable is the fact that those who are sentenced for similar offences after July 2008 are given determinate sentences, behave badly and are released anyway, while those sentenced pre-July 2008 are left in jail. IPP prisoners are terrified to step out of line, don’t feel they can stick up for themselves, and are petrified of making themselves look in any way ‘dangerous.’

We’re not suggesting that there are no dangerous offenders who deserve IPP sentences. There are undoubtedly offenders in prison for whom the ‘dangerous’ tag is entirely warranted. It is natural to understand how these prisoners should show that they can work on reducing their risk so that their threat to the public can be adequately managed before they are released. But that does not change the fact that the system, as it currently stands, is completely unfair.

The Parole Board is massively over-stretched, and its decision making (for perhaps understandable reasons) is extremely cautious. The programmes that IPP prisoners are required to access aren’t available to them, and in any event once an offender has the ‘dangerousness’ label the onus is on him or her to prove that he isn’t dangerous anymore.

The Prison Reform Trust published its long awaited report on the IPP sentence, entitled ‘Unjust Desserts’ in July. The report cites not only the considerable cost implications of the IPP sentence, but also the wider cost of social injustice and the lack of confidence that results from the unfairness and inconsistency in the IPP regime. Unsurprisingly the report found that more than half of all IPP prisoners have ‘emotional wellbeing’ problems, and had ‘relatively high suicide rates’, as well as finding themselves stuck in a ‘vicious circle’ when it came to accessing risk-reducing courses: the more IPP prisoners there are in the system, the harder it is to access courses and prove risk reduction.

The report concludes that there is an urgent need for the government to review the sentence, and puts forward three main suggestions for reform: firstly, abolition of the IPP and reverting to the use of the discretionary life sentence; secondly, narrowing the criteria for IPP sentences so that less people are given IPP, or thirdly, finding sufficient resources to make the sentence effective and fair. If the government decided to implement the first or second proposal, the report states that there would be a need to decide whether any amendments would be retrospective.

Eoin McLennan-Murray, the President of the Prison Governors Association, welcomed the PRT report and called upon government ministers to review the IPP sentence. He said, ‘Day in and day out, Prison Governors and their staff are placed in the invidious position of having to try and defend the indefensible.’ Branding the IPP ‘absolutely inhumane and unfair’, he said that the sentence ‘totally undermined the fundamental principle of fairness for a significant proportion of the 6000-plus prisoners currently serving this sentence.’

The Chairman of the Parole Board, Sir David Latham, recently told the BBC that he considered that many prisoners were spending longer in jail than necessary, labeling the system for indeterminate sentence prisoners as ‘grotesquely unfair.’ In particular he said that the current system was too heavily focused on risk-aversion, and that no one had thought through the consequences for IPPs since the introduction of the sentence in 2005.

Crispin Blunt has commented that the previous Government had to reform the IPP arrangements in 2008, and that the current Government had inherited ‘a very serious problem’ with IPP prisoners. He said, ‘we have 6,000 IPP prisoners, well over 2,500 of whom have exceeded their tariff point. Many cannot get on courses because our prisons are wholly overcrowded and (they are) unable to address offending behaviour. That is not a defensible position.’

Lorna elliott .

IPP Prisoners Familys Campaign: London Rally.We are marching out on the 7th March!...

IPP Prisoners Familys Campaign: London Rally.We are marching out on the 7th March!...: We are hosting a larger protest/demonstration 7th March 2012 meeting at London Victoria Coach Station between 9.30am to 11.00am. We wil...

London Rally.We are marching out on the 7th March!!

We are hosting a larger protest/demonstration 7th March 2012 meeting at London Victoria Coach Station between 9.30am to 11.00am. We will be marching down Victoria Street, Broadway, Carteret Street, Queen Anne's Gate, Old Queen Street, Horse Guards Road, No.10 Downing Street, Parliament Street then finishing on Bridge Street opposite The Houses of Parliament, to finish at around 4.00pm - There are also a group of us camping out from 5th to 7th to gain more attention Look at the attention the people got by camping outside St Pauls, I want the same for us - please let me know if you are up for this too ;)  If any of you would like to join us please do!!!

The Press are being notified, MP's & Lords are sitting in parliament on 5th & 7th March - so we WILL be heard!!!!

"We need to unite, March onward and be heard!!! I have been informed that the report days in parliament are on 5th & 7th March Main Rally day is on 7th (Wednesday) so those of you can attend for the 1 day come on the 7thIt's your IPP - YOU ARE their voice!!! Your IPP needs YOU!!!! We are marching out on the 7th March!!!! UNITED, SOLID, THE VOICES FOR OUR IPP'S!!!! Banner up, petition to sign, leaflets & cards to give out, tent up, thick sleeping bag, thermals, flasks of tea & coffee etc... not forgetting the 24 hour cafes to pop to & warm up in between!!!

IPP Web Store:http://www.ippprisonerscampaign.com/apps/webstore/

Kenneth Clarkes e-mail. May i suggest every1 send him an e-mail asking to make the IPP sentences of already existing detainees determinate with a little about the effect this sentence is having on us as family members of serving IPP detainees. It can't hurt and maybe personal e-mails could have an effect on his thinking and compassion. clarkek@parliament.uk

 Up & Coming events

Wednesday 8th February 2012 - Going live on Ipswich Community Radio 105.7 fm at 8:25am to discuss and raise awareness about IPP - please tune in & listen - for those of you who missed the interview - you will be able to visit http://www.icrfm.co.uk/ & click on listen again.
Saturday 11th & Sunday 12th February 2012 11:00 am until 16:00pmConrad will leading the IPP Awareness in Manchester at HMP Strangeways
Saturday 18th February - Raise Awareness About IPP - Birmingham City Centre
We will be visiting Birmingham on Saturday 18th February 2012
Meeting Point - Birmingham New Street Rail Station 10:00am to finish between 15:00pm and 16:00pm
The next city we will be visiting will be Liverpool - Date TBC
Meeting Point - Liverpool Lime Street Rail Station 10:00am to finish around 16:00pm

Please feel welcome to join us or approach us if you would like to ask any questions
We Look Forward To Seeing You There!! x
Thank you for contributions.
Contact us http://www.ippprisonerscampaign.com/contactus.htm

Ipp Prisoners Familys Campaign facebook - We fight for Prison reforms, We fight misjustice,
We figh for freedom, We stand up for prisoners familys, and prisoners.

 

Photo outside the House of Lords

WE NEED YOU TO BE IN LONDON THE VERY DAY IPP IS BEING ABOLISHED ? YOUR IPP NEEDS YOU House of Lords

Our IPP remain in Prison, the victim of the unspeakable horrors of maddness off Labour party brutality. We can never be satisfied, . We can never be satisfied as long as our Serving IPP are stripped of British Justice We cannot be satisfied No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. and our IPP are set FRE...E,

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted FREEDOM FOR OUR IPP, I have a dream, Come and join our dream together we will make it happen , you and me you, me and every serving IPP familys have the same dream, One word Retropective Dream, WE CAN AND MUST DO WHAT WE CAN TO MAKE OUR DREAM COME TRUE, Are you with me ? FREEDOM, What do we what ? IPP British FREEDOM FOR ALL, IPP Justice When do we want it NOW ? FREEDOM & FREEDOM

We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. IPP Laws set to be abolished, Yet our Loved one's LEFT In LIMBO, If we ...do not ACT, ? We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, What is our policy? IPP APPLYS TO ALL< I will say; "It is to wage IPP Amendments for ALL, , by family power, Public Awareness, what ever it takes, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage IPP Public Awareness, Mission, against a monstrous British Prion Sentence, known as IPP, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. This is our policy. abolishment of IPP Laws for SERVING IPP<" You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory - victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival." We cannot guarantee IPP victory, but only deserve it.

IPPs are unjustifiably wrecking the lives of tens of thousands of Familys, nearly 7,000 IPP prisoners who have no way of knowing whether they will ever be released, and their families, partners and friends who dread the real possibility that they will never see their loved ones return to their homes again. [We Will Never Alow this barbarice thing to happen] The IPP Sentence will be abolished if Parliament passes the relevant clauses of Ken Clarke’s reform Bill ? We have One chance to force Ken Clarke to add IPP Amendment Fixed term Release date for Serving IPP, That is our campaign Goal & Emmersons Solicitors support, THE ONLY SOLICITORS THAT STARTED FACE BOOK IPP CAMPAIGN ABOLISHMENT.

THE OFFICIAL DATE IPP IS BEING ABOLISHED WE HAVE LESS THAN 4 WEEKS LEFT ?,

"The date and Time to be Confirmed" 7.3.12 House of Lords Report Stage, Also known as Amendment stage ? This is the stage House of Lords & MP, Agree to any addititional amendments ? This is known as PING=PONG, goes back and too each House's UNTILL a agrrement is reached, by Both HOUSE'S This is the DAY... IPP will be abolished ? This is when we need to march and rally to LONDON, EVERYONE must attend If ? we want what we dont have now ? IPP Retropective apply's to ALL, This is our chance to make IPP Legal History, We NEED TO BE OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT, WHEN THE LASPO LEGAL LAW BILL BEFORE IT BECOMES A ACT OF PARLIAMENT ROYLY ASSENT, We MUST BE THERE, For OUR IPP, If we want them Released ? Once IPP is abolished
Ipp Opportunities do not come with their values stamped upon them. This is our BIG Opportunitie, TOO EARN FREEDOM FOR YOUR SERVING IPP, I DONT CARE HOW YOU GET THERE ? JUST GET THERE< YOUR IPP NEEDS YOU< PLEASE DONT MISS THIS ONCE CHANCE IN A LIOFE TIME TO GET YOUR IPP HOME, DONT MISS THIS LAST CHANCE

Ipp Prisoners Familys Campaign LONDON RALLY, You shouldn’t have to fight for a spot in someone’s life. – Never force someone to make a space in their life for you, because if they know your worth, they will create one for you. WE NEED YOU TO BE IN LONDON THE VERY DAY IPP IS BEING ABOLISHED ? YOUR IPP NEEDS YOU,, Please make space in your life for the very day your loved ones need you the most, We have ONE Chance only to make IPP Equaly APPLY TO SERVING IPP, We need you there Give up a few hours on the day, To Let Government Aware that Ipp Prisoners Familys Campaign, Are the Voice of your serving IPP, Help to bring them back home, IF We dont attend your IPP want be coming Home, FACT ?

Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a family of a serving IPP Prisoner you have to stand up for their rights , Lets march together Ipp Prisoners Familys Campaign hand in hand, demand MP & Lords hear freedom call for ALL IPP, 2012 year of hope
Ipp Prisoners Familys Campaign "A year from now you may wish you had started today." In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do. The worst thing you can do is nothing." Lets march on London on the VERY DAY IPP IS BEING ABOLISHED ? 7th March 2012 ?Conrad.

IPP Prisoners Familys Campaign: IPP Public & MP / Lords Awareness Mission is the k...

IPP Prisoners Familys Campaign: IPP Public & MP / Lords Awareness Mission is the k...: Have you heard about IPP Prisoners, being kept in prison years and years past the sentence impossed by the Judge, British People...

IPP Public & MP / Lords Awareness Mission is the key towards release and Freedom.

Have you  heard about IPP Prisoners, being kept in prison years and years past the sentence impossed by the Judge,  British People being kept in prison without a release date, When you read about this injustice you will   fully support  the  IPP campaign, and our calls for IPP change's 2012 year of HOPE Year of change FREEDOM is calling lets help to spread the WORD  Tell everyone that will listern tell them about what this government are doing keeping prisoners in prison for YEARS Tell the EVERYONE about IPP & Whats going on 7,650, Serving IPP Prisoners Thousands of Familys suffering and prisoners kept in prison years beyound original sentence, 3,190 IPP prisoners beyond tariff end, IPP Prisoners ENGLANDS Very Own Guantanamo Bay Prisoners Barbaric Sentence 3,190 have served DOUBLE there Sentence Thats ENGLANDS British Justice, GUANTANAMO BAY TYPE IMPRISONMENT, ITS TIME FOR IPP CHANGE, 2012 year of IPP British Justice For ALL Serving.

Conrad https://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/profile.php?id=100002699840021

Emmersons Solicitors shortlisted for national award by

Iain Laing, The JournalOct 12 2011

in

A SMALL North East law firm has been shortlisted alongside big national law firms in national industry awards.
Emmersons Solicitors, which has offices in Gosforth in Newcastle and Sunderland, has been shortlisted for the prestigious Law Society Excellence Awards in the Marketing and Business Development category.
“This is absolutely amazing,” said Jacqueline Emmerson. “We are a two partner, seven fee earner practice based in the North East and we have been shortlisted with some of the biggest international brands in the legal profession. It’s like Newcastle Falcons winning the European cup!”
The submission to the judging panel highlighted Emmersons’ campaign led by their crime and prison law partner, Michael Robinson, and prison law specialist Lorna Elliott on Facebook and twitter and through weblinks with others, to abolish the IPP sentence so it can be replaced with a sentencing policy and process that works.
Emmersons created and maintain a dedicated Facebook page to allow those who wish to express their views about IPP to do so. It is aimed mainly at family and friends of IPP prisoners and ex prisoners.
It created a Twibbon and have contributed articles to Inside Time and on blogs and websites to highlight the problems that exist with IPP. The firm has been referred to in Westminster Hall debates on the issue and in Parliament. Lorna regularly contributes to PCUK, a forum for prisoners’ families.
Robinson said: “ The short-listing coincides with the expansion of Emmersons through the employment of Richard Twyford, in commercial property, and Simon Jenkins, in prison law and crime, and confirms that our marketing and business development strategy developed over the last few years has been as successful as we could have hoped for.

“We developed a strategy some years ago that embraces all forms of social media and we have ensured our website is optimised so we appear at the top of search engines. In relation to our website we are lucky to have the expertise of www.arttia.co.uk , another local North East company”.http://www.nebusiness.co.uk/business-news/latest-business-news/2011/10/12/emmersons-solicitors-shortlisted-for-national-award-51140-29579966/

Lobbying for changeThe Court of Appeal has ruled that it's unlawful for someone given an "indeterminate sentence for public protection" (IPP)

to be kept in prison beyond his 'tariff' (the period set by the sentencing judge as the minimum required for punishment, release thereafter being permitted on condition that the offender satisfies the parole board that he won't reoffend) if he hasn't been able to take one of the prison courses whose completion is a condition of release. It seems that a thousand or more prisoners serving IPPs are in this Kafkaesque, nightmare logical trap.
It is a life sentence in all but name. The only real difference is that it can be given for far less serious offences. But even after the tariff, the person remains in prison until they have done the courses necessary to demonstrate they are ready for release. He would only be released if he "admitted guilt"
Mr. Blunt commented that the previous Government had to reform the IPP arrangements in 2008, and that the current Government had inherited ‘a very serious problem’ with IPP prisoners. He said, ‘we have 6,000 IPP prisoners, well over 2,500 of whom have exceeded their tariff point. Many cannot get on courses because our prisons are wholly overcrowded and (they are) unable to address offending behaviour. For example if you had a prison term of 3years you may have five offending courses to finish as part of your sentence plan before you can be released. 18 month waiting list to do 1 course and that’s if they have the course at all at that prison .So instead of doing 3 years it may be 5 years or more until you have finished the courses. It seems you have to be smart to badger the prison to get on these courses. But what if you have learning differeces you may not of done a single one, and be left to rot.
So I have become very interested and concerned about the number of inmates with literacy and numeracy problems,  dyslexia and other 80% of prisoners have poor writing skills, 50% have reading difficulties and 65% have trouble with numeracy. Half of all prisoners are at or below the level expected of an 11 year old in reading, two-thirds in numeracy and four-fifths in writing.
This can cause truancy and also misconduct, even to the point of expulsion from school, which would lead to poor performance and low exam results, if any results received at all.
“Nearly half of male sentenced prisoners were excluded from school and nearly a third of all prisoners were regular truants whilst at school and more than half of male and more than two-thirds of female adult prisoners have no qualifications at all.” It is therefore not inconceivable that an individual with a learning disability can leave school being unable to read and write, having no qualifications and little prospect of employment due to even seemingly small details of being unable to fill in an application form or read an article to find a job.
But still many tens of thousands do and this can become the start of a vicious circle.
According to the Offenders Learning and Skills Unit in the Department for Education and Skills, just under a third of the prison population is attending education classes at any one time, half of all prisoners do not have the skills required by 96 per cent of jobs and over 50% were unemployed before imprisonment.The whole justice system is it helping or damaging the criminal. Surely we can't be that worse off. We are just not moving on with times. Some Criminals don't like to reoffend, but the system lets them down instead of helping them. I'm sure there is a lot of good in all of us if we channeled our efforts in the right direction.
End the “IPP”, training and education!!!

IPP is inhumane, against human rights and breaches Human Rights Act 1998 Article 3 Prohibition of Torture - No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

The Petition is Sponsored by: Lorna Elliott IIb -Barrister,& Lound Mulrenan jefferies Solicitors former with Emmerson Soliciters Ipp familys Campaign.

IPP is inhumane, against human rights and breaches Human Rights Act 1998 Article 3 Prohibition of Torture - No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
IPP stands for Indeterminate sentence for Public Protection - What this actually means is if you were to go to court and receive a 2 year sentence, 3 years, 4 years, etc..... with IPP you could be imprisoned for up to 99 years.At the moment it is still up to the prisoner to prove that they are safe for release which is what makes it impossible as you cannot prove you are safe to release as you are in prison.It is then up to a parole board to decide if they feel you are ready to be released back in to society, so prisoners and their families do not know IF or WHEN they will EVER be released, this in itself is mental TORTURE, DEGRADING & INHUMANE.There are currently over 3,200 prisoners that are over their tariff which is costing £41,000 each year for each prisoner to remain in prison. For 3,200 prisoners this amounts to £131,200,000 each year and in total there are 88,000 prisoners in prison in the UK.The main point of our campaign is not to argue whether or not the prisoners deserved to go to prison - The fact of the matter is that even if it means that prisoners are given longer sentences - be it 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, or even 25 years - then every human on this planet deserves to know when they will be home with their children and/or families again, they deserve to know what time they have to serve, change the existing IPP sentences over to determinate sentences. lessIPP is inhumane, against human rights and breaches Human Rights Act 1998 Article 3 Prohibition of Torture - No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
IPP stands for Indeterminate sentence for Public Protection - What this actually means is if you were to go to court and receive a 2 year sentence, 3 years, 4 years, etc..... with IPP you could be imprisoned for up to 99 years.At the moment it is still up to the prisoner to prove that they are safe for release which is what makes it impossible as you cannot prove you are safe to release as you are in prison.It is then up to a parole board to decide if they feel you are ready to be released back in to society, so prisoners and their families do not know IF or WHEN they will EVER be released, this in itself is mental TORTURE, DEGRADING & INHUMANE.There are currently over 3,200 prisoners that are over their tariff which is costing £41,000 each year for each prisoner to remain in prison. For 3,200 prisoners this amounts to £131,200,000 each year and in total there are 88,000 prisoners in prison in the UK.The main point of our campaign is not to argue whether or not the prisoners deserved to go to prison - The fact of the matter is that even if it means that prisoners are given longer sentences - be it 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, or even 25 years - then every human on this planet deserves to know when they will be home with their children and/or families again, they deserve to know what time they have to serve, change the existing IPP sentences over to determinate sentences.