Saturday, 24 March 2012
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
Monday, 12 March 2012
Confirmation that IPP is being scrapped in parliament was received on 9th March from MP Ben Gummer of The House of Commons
however we still need to fight on for retrospective law - for release dates for IPP's that are still trapped in this inhumane broken system.
Ben Gummer MP
Ipp. Alas, the thousands of people in prison because of it can't jump for joy yet. The Government still lacks the decency to resurrect those suffering this stupid and wicked sentence back into freedom.
The IPP Injustice
A simple tweak of the law by a desperate government has managed to more than double the number of Lifers in under twelve years. Remarkable.
It was once the case that in order to receive a Life sentence you had to do something pretty horrible. Murder, obviously, got you a mandatory life sentence. Then there were discretionary life sentences, dished out for lesser crimes but where Life was a sentencing option. It had to be the case that to receive a discretionary life sentence, there had to be firm evidence that you were either unstable or on an escalating path of violence. Receiving such a sentence was a Very Big Deal.
But the government, faced with some popular panic whose specifics I forget (there are so many), diluted the meaning of the sentence whilst simultaneously broadening its scope.
These sentences are "not really" life sentences, only open-ended ones. The terminology is different but the reality is exactly the same. These are Indefinite Sentences for Public Protection - IPP.
You don't have to do anything particularly serious to receive such a sentence, which is why there are thousand people serving one.
The pettiness of some offences which have attracted these sentences is revealed by the tariff portion of these sentences. The tariff, minimum term, equates with the fixed sentence they would have received before IPPs were invented. The average tariff for IPP's is a mere 18 months; there are those who have had a tariff of one day.
These sentences are a travesty on several levels. Their purpose is fundamentally objectionable. IPP are intended to hold people in prison on an assumption that they pose a future danger to society, hence their open ended nature. When it comes to depriving people of their liberty and inflicting upon them and their families the degradations that flow from imprisonment, I firmly hold that it should be no more than a punishment for the crime already committed.
Detaining people on the basis of what they may possibly do in the future is wholly unjust. It can be dressed up with whatever politico-legal sleight of hand available, but it remains the fact that punishing people for what they may possibly do in future is a repellent act.
Added to these principled objections are practical ones. IPP's can only be released if they can show that they have "addressed their offending behaviour". This is done by completing "offending behaviour courses" and then parading these achievements before the Parole Board.
Alas, the side effect of knee jerk policy making is to speak first, try and make it work later. With IPP's, this means that there are insufficient places on these courses for them to complete them before the end of their tariff. If your tariff is 18 months and the waiting list for the course is 2 years, there is no chance for you to demonstrate before the PB that you are fit for release.
Way over 2500 of those serving IPP's are over their tariff and the Ministry accepts that this is not necessarily the fault of the prisoners. So bizarre and wicked is this situation, that the High Court ruled last year that, in effect, the sentence has become so arbitrary as to become unlawful.
The higher courts plugged this political problem on the well known legal doctrine of "tough shit". And so these men remain in prison. A similar situation applies to those who are due Parole hearings, their only avenue of release. The PB is so overstretched that people are not getting their hearing as prescribed by law, some serving years extra just waiting for the hearing.
The courts have ruled that this is a terrible situation but, alas, there is no one in particular to blame. And so they have now blocked IPP's from launching legal challenges to demand their right to a parole hearing. It's no one’s fault, so we are back to "tough shit".
Actually, we know whose fault it is. It is the governments fault. They invented IPP sentences and talked tough on sentencing. The judiciary responded and used IPP sentences with some vigour. The government, quick to throw people in prison, neglected to provide the resources for these prisoners to undertake their offending behaviour courses, and failed to fund the Parole Board for this doubling of their workload.
This situation reflects a profound shift in sentencing philosophy that was overlooked by legislatures and society. Rather than being sent to prison for a fixed time as a punishment for the crime committed, many are now detained not only for the crime, but on the basis of what they may do in future.
It seems obvious to me that this is a wicked injustice, a shift in philosophy that should have received a wide debate. Even so, to implement this schema without funding the mechanisms to administer it, such the parole board, strips whatever legitimacy may have existed from this shameful enterprise.
Sunday, 11 March 2012
IPP Prisoners Familys Campaign: Ipp prisoners and dyslexia "blatant injustice".
IPP Prisoners Familys Campaign: Ipp prisoners and dyslexia "blatant injustice".: The Ipp has been described as a "blatant injustice". Figures from the Ministry of Justice showed there prisoners who were in jail beyond t...
Ipp prisoners and dyslexia "blatant injustice".
The Ipp has been described as a
"blatant injustice". Figures from the Ministry of Justice showed
there prisoners who were in jail beyond their minimum tariff were still inside two
years and more after their minimum sentence expired because many Ipp prisoners
cannot get on course or course to address offending behaviour as our prisons
are wholly over crowded. If you cannot complete courses necessary to progress
through your sentence, you are in linbo. This is not a defensible position. Did
you know 80% offenders have disability such as dyslexia a disorder
manifested by difficulty in learning to with read, speak and write, despite
conventional instruction.
Were you aware thosed that suffered with dyslexia were previously let down
by the educational system. A system that did not teach them in way dyslexics needed
to be taught.The government way, or no way. Moreover denied accurate
diagnosis hindering there education thus career. It’s understandable then
people with dyslexia would struggle in life, and many land up in the prison system.
There is a bill going through at the moment asking for a review of an appropriate diagnoses for dyslexics, but is it too little too late,for those they have let down. A double WAMY keeping people with learning disorders DYSLEXIA, ASBERGERS in a failed sythem beyond there tariff.
Prisons suggest that around 53%
of inmates may have some form of dyslexia. Although prisons have educational
facilities they full short of the correct programmes methods and techniques
dyslexics need and a significant number of prisoners fail to make use of them. Combinations
of low self-esteem, bitter memories of school and “programmes” that fail to
tackle their dyslexia lead them to elect to stay in their cells, while others
are becoming literate. Prisoners themselves have cited poor literacy, and the
low self-esteem that goes with it. They are cut off from learning, from
entering valuable training. This cannot be right and you the tax payer are
paying £41,000 per year to keep 1 prisoner in custody.
Friday, 9 March 2012
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