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Thursday 30 June 2016

IPP/ Bromley Briefings Summer 2016 Prison: the facts.

Facts and figures provide a better basis than opinion for policy and practice change. Drawn largely from government sources, these facts chart the extraordinary rise in prison numbers over the last twenty years, inflation in sentencing and the social and economic consequences of overuse of custody. They reveal the state of our overcrowded prisons and the state of people in them, the impact of deep budget cuts, the pace and scale of change in the justice system and the scope for community solutions to crime.
 
On 17 June 2016, the prison population in England and Wales was 84,405. 1 Since 1993 the prison population in England and Wales has increased by more than 41,000 people, a 92% rise. 2 People in prison, prisoners and staff, are less safe than they were five years ago. 
 
More prisoners were murdered, killed themselves, self- harmed and were victims of assaults. 3 290 people died in prison in the 12 months to March 2016, the highest number on record. Over a third of these deaths were self-inflicted. 4 There were six homicides in prison in the 12 months to 2016, the highest number on record. 5 Serious assaults in prison have more than doubled in the last three years. There were 2,197 serious prisoner on prisoner assaults and 625 serious assaults on staff in 2015. 6 Sexual assaults have more than doubled since 2011. 
 
There were 300 recorded assaults in 2015. 7 The National Tactical Response Group, a specialist unit assisting in safely managing and resolving serious incidents in prisons responded to over 400 incidents in 2014–15. 8 Emergency services were called out more than 26,600 times to incidents in UK prisons in 2015. 9 There has been a 57% increase in the number of fires in prison in the past year. 
 
 There were 1,935 fires in 2015—an average of more than 160 a month. 10
Rates of self-harm are at the highest level ever recorded. There were 32,313 self-harm incidents in 2015—a nearly 40% rise in just two years. 11 People serving the indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP) have one of the highest rates of self-harm in prison. For every 1,000 people serving an IPP there were 550 incidents of self-harm. 
 
This compares with 324 incidents for people serving a determinate sentence, and is more than twice the rate for people serving life sentences. 12 Women accounted for 23% of all incidents of self-harm in 2015 despite representing just 5% of the total prison population. 
 
 This has fallen sharply since 2011 when women accounted for over a third of all incidents, and reflects a sharp rise in incidents amongst men. 13 The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman found that in 39 deaths in prison between June 2013 and June 2015, the prisoner was known, or strongly suspected, to have been using new psychoactive substances before their deaths.
 
 14 448 young people aged 15–24 have died in prison in the last 20 years. 87% of these deaths were classified as self-inflicted. 15 The number of deaths from natural causes has nearly doubled in less than a decade. 167 people died of natural causes in the 12 months to March 2016, a 12% increase on the previous year. 16 The average age of people dying from natural causes in prison between 2007 and 2010 was 56 years old. 17
Prison population and sentencing trends Use of custody Between 1993 and 2015 the prison population in England and Wales increased by more than 41,000 people, a 92% rise.
 
 18 England and Wales have the highest imprisonment rate in Western Europe, locking up 147 people per 100,000 of the population. Scotland has a rate of 143 per 100,000 and Northern Ireland 78 per 100,000. 19 On 17 June 2016, the prison population in England and Wales was 84,405. 
 
20 Scotland’s prison population was 7,678 and on 10 June Northern Ireland’s prison population was 1,521. 21 Prison has a poor record for reducing reoffending—46% of adults are reconvicted within one year of release. For those serving sentences of less than 12 months this increases to 60%. Over two-thirds (68%) of under 18 year olds are reconvicted within a year of release. 
22 According to the National Audit Office, there is no consistent correlation between prison numbers and levels of crime. 23 International comparisons also show there is no consistent link between the two
rison sentences are getting longer. 
 
The average prison sentence is now more than three months longer than ten years ago—16.2 months. For more serious, indictable offences, the average is 56.8 months—18 months longer than a decade ago. 25 Greater use of long custodial sentences accounted for 66% of the rise in the prison population between 1993 and 2012. The number of people serving sentences of four years or more, including indeterminate sentences, increased by 26,600. 
 
26 They now account for nearly three in five (56%) sentenced prisoners. 27 Short prison sentences are less effective than community sentences at reducing reoffending. 28 Despite this, nearly half (48%) of all people entering prison under sentence are serving a sentence of six months or less. 29 Life and indeterminate sentences Increasing numbers of people in prison don’t know if, or when, they might be released. 
 
Indeterminate sentences account for 16% of the sentenced prison population, up from 9% in 1993. 30 11,505 people are currently serving indeterminate sentences. 64% are serving a life sentence (7,372) while the remaining 36% (4,133) are serving an Indeterminate sentence for Public Protection (IPP).
 31
Four-fifths (81%) of people serving an IPP sentence are still in prison despite having passed their tariff expiry date—the minimum period they must spend in custody. 32 People were held for 44 months beyond tariff on average —however many still in prison will have been held for considerably longer.
 
 33 The rate of release for IPP prisoners has increased in the past year. In 2015 for every 1,000 people serving an IPP sentence 121 were released. 34 England and Wales have more than twice as many people serving indeterminate sentences than France, Germany and Italy combined—the highest in Europe by a significant margin. 35 People serving mandatory life sentences are spending more of their sentence in prison. On average they spend 17 years in custody, up from 13 years in 2001.
 
 36 Lifers continue to serve their sentence on release from prison for the rest of their lives. They are subject to monitoring and restrictions and can be returned to custody at any point if they break the terms of their licence.
 There are currently 54 people serving a whole life sentence—they are unlikely to ever be released. 3
People remanded to custody to await trial are innocent until proven guilty. 40,458 people were sent to prison before their trial in 2015. 38 Three-fifths (60%) of people entering prison on remand awaiting trial are accused of non-violent offences.
 17% were for theft offences, and 10% for drug offences. 39 People on remand currently make up 12% of the total prison population—10,066 people. The majority are awaiting trial (68%), whilst the rest await sentencing. 40 Two in every five self-inflicted deaths in 2015 were by prisoners held on remand . 41 One in ten people (10,897) remanded in custody were subsequently acquitted.
 
 A further 15% of people (15,564) received a non-custodial sentence. 42 People spend an average of just over 10 weeks in custody whilst on remand. 43 However, some may be held considerably longer. Remand prisoners receive no financial help from the Prison Service at the point of release. 44 Those acquitted receive no compensation
Performance and outcomes Reoffending Prison has a poor record for reducing reoffending —46% of adults are reconvicted within one year of release. For those serving sentences of less than 12 months this increases to 60%. 45 48% of women leaving prison are reconvicted within one year . 
 
46 For women who have served more than 11 previous custodial sentences, the reoffending rate rises to 77%. 47 Over two-thirds (68%) of under 18 year olds are reconvicted within a year of release. 48 Short prison sentences are less effective than community sentences at reducing reoffending. People serving prison sentences of less than 12 months had a reoffending rate seven percentage points higher than similar offenders serving a community sentence—they also committed more crimes.
 
 49 Reoffending by all recent ex-prisoners costs the economy between £9.5 and £13 billion annually. As much as three quarters of this cost can be attributed to former short-sentenced prisoners: some £7–10bn a yearRelease on temporary licence (ROTL) In 99.95% of cases ROTL is completed successfully.
 
 51 In 2012, just 26 cases involved the prisoner being arrested on suspicion of committing an offence. 52 Despite this, new restrictions on ROTL have seen a 37% drop in its use in the last two years. At the time restrictions were introduced the success rate was 99.93%. 53 Almost two-thirds (65%) of voluntary and private sector providers of ROTL placements surveyed said they had seen a decrease in ROTL —with some organisations reporting that their ROTL placements had “completely stopped” or become “almost impossible”. 
 
54 During 2014–15, there were a total of 1,273 people, on average only 368 per month, working out of the prison on licence. 55 They paid £246 per month on average to the Prisoners’ Earnings Act levy—the equivalent of nearly 30% of their net earnings. 56
Prison service resources and staffing The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) has reduced its budget by nearly a quarter since 2010–11.
 
 Between 2010–11 and 2014–15 it delivered cumulative savings of almost £900m. 57 NOMS has a savings target of a further £91m for 2015–16. 58 The cost of a prison place reduced by 18% between 2009–10 and 2014–15. The average annual overall cost of a prison place in England and Wales is now £36,259. 
 
59 The daily prison food budget within public sector prisons for 2014–15 was £2.02 per person. 60 There are now fewer staff looking after more prisoners. The number of staff employed in the public prison estate has fallen by 30% in the last six years—13,720 fewer staff looking after nearly 450 more people. 61 Staff shortages have required the use of detached duty. During June 2015, there were 270 people deployed to a different prison to ensure that there was a safe number of staff. 
 
62vercrowding The prison system as a whole has been overcrowded in every year since 1994. 63 Overcrowding affects whether activities, staff and other resources are available to reduce risk of reoffending. At the end of May 2016, 74 of the 118 prisons in England and Wales were overcrowded. 64 21,755 people were held in overcrowded accommodation on average in 2014–15—more than a quarter of the prison population. The majority were doubling up in cells designed for one. 
 
65 Private prisons have held a higher percentage of their prisoners in overcrowded accommodation than public sector prisons every year for the past 17 years. 66 By June 2020 the prison population is projected to reach 89,600. 67 Treatment and conditions The proportion of prisons whose performance is “of concern” or “of serious concern” almost doubled from one in eight (13%) in 2012–13, to one in four (24%) in 2014–15. 68 Prisons are getting bigger. 48% of prisoners are now held in prisons of 1,000 places or more. 6
Nearly 8,700 prisoners are working in the public prison estate, and a further 2,700 are working in private prisons. In 2014–15 they worked a total of 14.9 million hours.
 
 70 People in prison—a snapshot Men represent 95% of the prison population in England and Wales. Unless otherwise stated, references to people in prison largely concern men. Children and young adults The number of children (under-18s) in custody has fallen by 71% in the last eight years. 71 They are also committing fewer crimes—with proven offences down by 71% from their peak in 2006. 72 At the end of March 2016 there were 882 children in custody in England and Wales. 33 children were aged 14 or younger. 73 29% of children in custody in 2014–15 were there for non-violent crimes.
 
 74 Fewer than 1% of all children in England are in care, 75 but they make up over half (52%) of children in secure training centres and almost two-fifths (38%) of children in young offender institutions. 76 One in five children in custody surveyed reported that they had learning difficulties. 77 Three-quarters of children in prison had an absent father, one-third had an absent mother. Two-fifths had been on the child protection register or had experienced neglect or abuse. 78 Use of restraint 
 
on children is increasing. In 2015 there were 28 incidents of restraint per 100 children in custody, up from 18 in 2010. 79 There were 429 injuries reported as a result of restraint in 2015. 80 Assault rates amongst children in custody are rising. In 2015 there were 16 assaults per 100 children in custody, up from 9 in 2010. 8
4,668 young adults (aged 18–20) are currently in prison in England and Wales. 82 There are now 43% fewer young adults in prison in England and Wales than in 2011. 83 The minimum age that a person can be prosecuted in a criminal trial in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is 10 years. This compares to 12 years in Canada, 13 years in France, 14 years in Germany and China, and 15 years in Sweden. In Scotland the age of criminal responsibility is eight years, but the minimum age for prosecution is 12. 84 Women The number of women in prison nearly trebled between 1993 and 2005. 
 
 Numbers have started slowly to reduce, but there are still 1,900 more women in prison today than there were twenty years ago. 85 On 17 June 2016 there were 3,861 women in prison in England and Wales. 86 8,818 women entered prison in 2015. 45% of them first entered prison on remand.
Most women entering prison under sentence (85%) have committed a non-violent offence. 42% entered custody under sentence in 2015 for theft and handling stolen goods.
 
 88 Most women entering prison serve very short sentences. 61% of sentenced women entering prison in 2015 were serving six months or less. 89 In 1993 only a third of women entering custody were sentenced to six months or less. 90 53% of women in prison reported experiencing emotional, physical or sexual abuse as a child, compared to 27% of men. 
 
91 46% of women in prison report having suffered a history of domestic abuse. 92 Prisoners’ families More than double the number of children are affected by parental imprisonment than divorce in the family. 93 Approximately 200,000 children in England and Wales had a parent in prison at some point in 2009. 94 It is estimated that in 2010 more than 17,240 children were separated from their mother by imprisonment.
Between 13–19% of women in prison are estimated to have one or more dependent children.
 
 96 Parental imprisonment approximately trebles the risk for antisocial or delinquent behaviour by their children. 97 Over half (54%) of prisoners interviewed had children under the age of 18 when they entered prison. The vast majority felt they had let their family down (82%). 98 40% of prisoners said that support from their family, and 36% said that seeing their children, would help them stop reoffending in the future. 99 Women are often held further away from their families, making visiting difficult and expensive.
 
 The average distance is 60 miles, but many are held considerably further away. 100 Foreign national prisoners The term ‘foreign national prisoner’ encompasses many different people. They may have come to the UK as children with parents, or be second generation immigrants; they may be asylum seekers or been given indefinite leave to remain as a refugee; they could be European nationals; those who have entered the UK illegally or were in the UK as students, visitors or workers who have got involved in the criminal justice system. Foreign nationals (non-UK passport holders) currently make up 12% of the prison population in England and Wales. 
 
On 31 March 2016 there were 9,971 foreign nationals in prison. 101 Foreign national prisoners come from 166 countries, but over half are from nine countries (Poland, Ireland, Romania, Jamaica, Albania, Lithuania, Pakistan, Somalia and India). 102 Nearly half (49%) of foreign nationals serving a sentence in prison are there for non-violent offences. 
 
1Currently 13% of women in prison are foreign nationals 104 —some of whom are known to have been coerced or trafficked into offending. One in ten foreign national women serving a sentence in prison are there for fraud and forgery offences (usually possession of false documents), and nearly one in three (31%) are there as a result of drugs offences. 105 More than 29,000 foreign national offenders have been removed from the UK since 2010. 
 
106 418 people were in prison held solely under immigration powers on 4 January 2016. 107 Minority ethnic prisoners 26% of the prison population, 21,879 people, are from a minority ethnic group. 108 This compares to 14% of the general population. 109 One in 10 British prisoners are black and 6% are Asian. 110 For black Britons this is significantly higher than the 2.8% of the general population they represent.
 
 111 According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, there is now greater disproportionality in the number of black people in prisons in the UK than in the United States. 112 The number of Muslim prisoners has more than doubled over the past 13 years. In 2002 there were 5,502 Muslims in prison, by 2016 this had risen to 12,543. They now account for 15% of the prison population. 
 
113 Muslims in prison are far from being a homogeneous group. Some were born into Muslim families, and others have converted. 41% are Asian, 31% are black, 14% are white and 8% are mixed. 114
Black and minority ethnic and Muslim prisoners often report more negatively about their experience in prison and relationships with staff. 
 
Fewer said they felt safe on their first night or at the time of the inspectorate’s survey; fewer had a member of staff they could turn to for help, and more said they had been victimised by staff. 115 4% of prisoners say they are Gypsy, Romany or Traveller. 116 However, “there is evidence of a possible reluctance by many prisoners to identify themselves as such.” 117 Older people With prison sentences getting longer, people are growing old behind bars. People aged 60 and over are the fastest growing age group in the prison estate. There are now nearly triple the number there were 15 years ago. 
 
118 People aged 50 and over currently make up 15% of the prison population. There are 12,577 people aged 50 and over in prison in England and Wales—4,373 are aged 60 and over. 119 On 30 June 2015 there were 134 people in prison aged 80 and over. 123 were sentenced when they were over the age of 70. 1
2% of men in prison aged over 50 have been convicted of sex offences. The next highest offence category is violence against the person (25%) followed by drug offences (11%). 121 As the prison population ages, more prisoners will die of natural causes while in prison.
 
 113 people aged 50 or over died of natural causes whilst in prison in 2015—more than double the number a decade ago. 122 Disability and health Disability 36% of prisoners are estimated to have a physical or mental disability. This compares with 19% of the general population. 123 18% of people in prison are estimated to have a physical disability. 124 People with learning disabilities and difficulties 20–30% of people in prison are estimated to have learning disabilities or difficulties that interfere with their ability to cope with the criminal justice system. 125 However, inspectors found that the system is failing to identify people with learning disabilities and difficulties adequately.
 
Nearly a third (32%) of people assessed in prison said they had a learning disability or difficulty. 127 23% of children in custody have very low IQs of below 70, and a further 36% have an IQ between 70–80). 128 Four-fifths of prisoners with learning disabilities or difficulties report having problems reading prison information—they also had difficulties expressing themselves and understanding certain words.
 
 129 Independent inspectors found that “little thought was given to the need to adapt regimes to meet the needs of prisoners with learning disabilities who may find understanding and following prison routines very difficult.” 130 Prisoners with learning disabilities or difficulties are more likely than other prisoners to have broken a prison rule; they are five times as likely to have been subject to control and restraint, and around three times as likely to report having spent time in segregation.
 
 131 The government has invested £75m in liaison and diversion services in police custody suites and the criminal courts, leading to 53% population coverage across England. Full roll out of services has yet to be announced. Prisoners with learning disabilities or difficulties were almost three times as likely as other prisoners to have clinically significant anxiety or depression, and most were both anxious and depressed. 132 Mental health 26% of women and 16% of men said they had received treatment for a mental health problem in the year before custody. 133 25% of women and 15% of men in prison reported symptoms indicative of psychosis. 
 
134 The rate among the general public is about 4%. 1356% of women prisoners report having attempted suicide at some point in their lives. This is more than twice the rate of male prisoners (21%) and higher than in the general UK population (6%).
 
 136 Suicide rates are significantly higher in custody than amongst the general population. In 2015 the rate of self-inflicted deaths amongst the prison population was 120 per 100,000 people, amongst the general population it is 10.8 per 100,000 people. 137 70% of people who died from self-inflicted means whilst in prison had already been identified with mental health needs. However, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) found that concerns about mental health problems had only been flagged at reception in just over half of these cases. 
 
138 The PPO’s investigation found that nearly one in five of those diagnosed with a mental health problem received no care from a mental health professional in prison. 139 71% of transfers from prison to secure hospitals under the Mental Health Act between April to September 2015 took more than 14 days, the Department of Health’s expectation. 
 
140 9,093 people have been referred for mental health treatment since the start of liaison and diversion services in England. 13% were detained under the Mental Health Act and 3% were admitted to a mental health hospital. 141 Drugs Former Chief Inspector of Prisons, Nick Hardwick has said that new psychoactive substances (NPS) are now “the most serious threat to the safety and security of jails”. 
 
142 They are a source of debt and associated bullying as well as a threat to health. 143 There were 851 recorded seizures of NPS in prison during October and November 2015. 144 The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman found that in 39 deaths in prison between June 2013 and June 2015, the prisoner was known, or strongly suspected, to have been using NPS before their deaths.
 
9% of prisoners reported that they had been pressured to give away their prescribed medication. 146 7% of men and 7% of women in prison reported that they had developed a problem with diverted medication. 147 Levels of drug use are high amongst offenders, with highest levels of use found amongst most prolific offenders. 64% of prisoners reported having used drugs in the four weeks before custody. 
 
148 15% of men and women in prison are serving sentences for drug offences. 149 66% of women and 38% of men in prison report committing offences to get money to buy drugs. 150 Nearly half of women in prison report having committed offences to support someone else’s drug use. 151 Reconviction rates more than double for prisoners who reported using drugs in the four weeks before custody compared with prisoners who had never used drugs (62% vs. 30%). 
 
152 Alcohol In almost half (47%) of all violent crimes the victim believed the offender or offenders to be under the influence of alcohol. 153 70% of prisoners surveyed said that they had been drinking when they committed their offence. 38% of people surveyed in prison believed that their drinking was a big problem. 154 Men and women in prison who reported drinking daily had an average of 20 units per day. This was equivalent to drinking four bottles of wine or ten pints of beer in a single day. 
 
155ocial and economic disadvantage Education and skills Following a review of prison education by Dame Sally Coates, prison governors will be given control over their education budgets, the power to change providers, and be held to account for their educational outcomes. 
 
156 42% of prisoners had been expelled or permanently excluded from school. 157 Half (51%) of people entering prison were assessed as having literacy skills expected of an 11 year old 158 — over three times higher than in the general adult population (15%). 159 Purposeful activity includes education, work and other activities to aid rehabilitation whilst in prison. However, purposeful activity outcomes are at the lowest level inspectors have ever recorded— they were only good or reasonably good in around a quarter of prisons. 
 
160 Prison education standards are deteriorating. Almost three-quarters of prisons inspected by Ofsted were judged as requiring improvement or inadequate for learning and skills. 1
nspectors said that “prison regimes did not give sufficient priority to education and training as a means of reducing reoffending or rehabilitating offenders”. 162 The number of people achieving level 1 or 2 qualifications (GCSE level) has plummeted— falling by 37% in English and 34% in Maths between the 2011–12 and 2014–15 academic years. 
 
163 The number of people in prison studying for an Open University degree has fallen by 37% since 2010. 164 Prisoners who had attend vocational training in prison are more likely to secure employment shortly after release 165 —a view endorsed by Ofsted. 166 Housing and employment 15% of newly sentenced prisoners reported being homeless before custody —9% were sleeping rough. 
 
167 11% of prisoners released from custody in 2014– 15 had no settled accommodation. 168 Inspectors have said that the figures are “misleading” as “they do not take into account the suitability or sustainability of the accommodation.” 169 A third of prisoners reported being in paid employment in the four weeks before custody. 13% reported never having had a job. 
 
170 Just over a quarter (27%) of people had a job on release from prison in 2014–15. 171 Outcomes for women are significantly worse than for men, with fewer than one in 10 women entering employment on release. 1
Just 16% of people leaving prison and referred to the Work Programme have found a job which they have held for six months or more. 173 Of these, a third have subsequently gone back to Jobcentre Plus. 174 The Prime Minister announced that the Civil Service will Ban the Box —removing the need to disclose unspent convictions at the initial job application stage.
 
 175 Only 12% of employers surveyed said that they had employed somebody with a criminal record in the past three years. One in five employers said they either did or were likely to exclude them from the recruitment process. 176 Financial exclusion Almost three-quarters of prisoners surveyed said finance, benefits and debt were a very significant need on release—second only to accommodation. 177 The discharge grant has remained fixed at £46 since 1997.
 
 Thousands of prisoners are ineligible, including those released from remand, fine defaulters and people serving less than 15 days. 178 People released from prison are more likely to be claiming benefits than other ex-offenders. More than half of people released from prison were claiming out-of-work benefits one month afterwards, with two-fifths still claiming benefits two years after release.
 
A third of prisoners reported that they did not have a bank account; of whom 31% had never had one. 180 Two-thirds of families said their debts had increased since the imprisonment of their relative. The same proportion of former prisoners felt that their debts had worsened during their sentence. 181 More than four in five former prisoners surveyed said their conviction made it harder to get insurance and four-fifths said that when they did get insurance, they were charged more. 
 
 The inability to obtain insurance can prevent access to mortgages and many forms of employment or self- employment. 182 Community solutions to crime 78% of unpaid work requirements were successfully completed from April to December 2014 —the highest proportion to date. 183 However, use of community sentences has nearly halved (44%) in the past decade. 184 85% of victims and 80% of offenders surveyed as part of a government funded £7m seven year research programme were either ‘very’ or ‘quite’ satisfied with their restorative conference. 185 27% fewer crimes were committed by offenders who had experienced restorative conferencing, compared with those offenders who did not.1
 
 
http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/Bromley%20Briefings/Summer%202016%20briefing.pdf

Monday 27 June 2016

Prisoners driven to self-harm by ‘no end’ sentences






The government cannot contradict them self by saying  Ipps are a risk  their no more a risk than any other prisoner.

Prison,s let out dangerous prisoners every single day,  murders etc .... how do they know  there not going to be a risk again.

The government are totally to blame:Parole board delays , poor resources and management means prisoners are being left languishing in jail with no end in sight.

(IPP) are turning to self-harm as they see no end to their detention, a new report has warned.


Figures show that for every 1,000 people serving an IPP there were 550 instances of self-harm – far higher than the rate for prisoners given fixed sentences, which is 324.

The controversial sentences were introduced in 2005 but scrapped seven years later by then justice secretary Ken Clarke who has described them as a “stain” on the justice system.

But more than 4,100 prisoners are still serving the “discredited sentences”, which mean they can only be released once a parole board is convinced they are no longer a danger to the public.

The Prison Reform Trust charity, which carried out the research, said a lack of resources, parole board delays and poor management means prisoners are being left languishing in jail with no end in sight.
The charity said four out of five convicts given the sentence have served their minimum terms but are still stuck behind bars.

Peter Dawson, incoming director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: “This report shows the growing toll of despair the IPP sentence is having on prisoners and their families, years after its abolition. Urgent action is needed.
“The Government should convert these discredited sentences into an equivalent determinate sentence, with a clear release date, and provide full support to people returning to their communities.

“Only then will the damaging legacy of this unjust sentence finally be confined to the history books.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “The number of IPP prisoners has reduced over the past year. 

However, we recognise there are problems in the system which is why the Justice Secretary has asked the Parole Board to urgently look at how we can improve the way these offenders are handled.
“Dedicated prison staff provide support to thousands of prisoners at risk of self-harm or suicide, including those on IPP sentences – often saving lives.”

 http://www.pressreader.com/


Prisoners serving 'discredited' IPP sentences 'self-harming in despair'

Figures show that for every 1,000 people serving an IPP there were 550 instances of self- harm - far higher than the rate for prisoners given fixed sentences, which is 324.

The controversial sentences were introduced in 2005 but scrapped seven years later by then justice secretary Ken Clarke who has described them as a "stain" on the justice system.
But more than 4,100 prisoners are still serving the "discredited sentences", which mean they can only be released once a parole board is convinced they are no longer a danger to the public.
The Prison Reform Trust charity, which carried out the research, said a lack of resources, parole board delays and poor management means prisoners are being left languishing in jail with no end in sight.
The charity said four out of five convicts given the sentence have served their minimum terms but are still stuck behind bars.
Peter Dawson, incoming director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "This report shows the growing toll of despair the IPP sentence is having on prisoners and their families, years after its abolition. Urgent action is needed.
"The Government should convert these discredited sentences into an equivalent determinate sentence, with a clear release date, and provide full support to people returning to their communities.
"Only then will the damaging legacy of this unjust sentence finally be confined to the history books."
Mr Dawson said it is time to "take a more radical approach" to dealing with the prisoners.
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme: "This is a group of people which is uniquely disadvantaged in the system and those rates of self harm, although self harm is rising across the prison system, they are startlingly different from other groups of prisoners including other people serving life sentences."
He admitted some of the prisoners are people who "pose a risk" but said the criminal justice system should give them suitable but finite sentences.
He added: "This sentence was an aberration. What we do is we sentence people by the nature of the offence, by the seriousness of the offence, the only major exception to that are people who have committed murder.
"For everything else we say you must serve your time in relation to the seriousness of what you did, and when it comes to an end you are on licence and you are supervised and you can be recalled to prison.
"But we don't say we might keep you in prison for the rest of your life because we are not sure."
Indeterminate public protection sentences were introduced to keep dangerous criminals whose crimes were not serious enough to warrant a life sentence off the streets.
But far more were handed out than anticipated, swamping the parole board and leaving convicts "trapped in the system", Mr Dawson said.


http://www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2016/06/23/prisoners-serving-discredited-ipp-sentences-self-harming-in-despair/

Friday 24 June 2016

ipp,whose brother is serving ten years for a ten-month sentence.Ministry of justice are talking the same story for the last number of years that we the families began to log evidence of letters past and present . Ministry of justice at the very top used the media to gloss over and mask the truth.

Indefinite prison terms 'psychological hell'

Thousands of prisoners in England and Wales have no idea when they will be released - even though they have served their minimum sentences.
It is because of Imprisonment for Public Protection - and although no new sentences have been handed down since they were scrapped in 2012, many prisoners are still serving them.
The BBC's Victoria Derbyshire has been speaking to Shaun Lloyd, who served three times his recommended prison sentence, and to April Ward, whose brother is serving ten years for a ten-month sentence.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03z6rp0

WE ARE BEGINING TO UNMASK THE TRUTH




 

Friday 10 June 2016

IPP.By Judge Dennis Challeen TO Michael GoveJustice Secretary !

A message to the new Justice Secretary Michael Gove

Michael Gove
We want them to have self worth, so we destroy their self worth
To be responsible, so we take away all responsibility
To be part of our community, so we isolate them from the community
To be positive and constructive, so we degrade them and make them useless
To be non violent, so we put them where there is violence all around
To be kind and loving people, so we subject them to hatred and cruelty
To quit being tough guys, so we put them where the tough guy is respected
To quit hanging around losers, so we put all the losers under one roof
To quit exploiting us, so we put them where they exploit each other
We want them to take control of their own lives own their own problems
and quit being parasites, so we make them totally dependent on us
Author -





Queens Speech: Biggest prison shake-up in England and Wales “since Victorian times”



vic
Six new ‘reform’ prisons are to house 5,000 prisoners by end of the year. The designated reform prisons are: HMP Wandsworth, HMP Holme House, HMP Kirklevington Grange, HMP Coldingley, HMP High Down and HMP Ranby.
 
These prisons will give unprecedented freedoms to prison governors, including financial and legal freedoms, such as how the prison budget is spent and whether to opt-out of national contracts; and operational freedoms over education, the prison regime, family visits, and partnerships to provide prison work and rehabilitation services.
 
A new regime of transparency will hold governors to account, with comparable statistics to be published for each prison on reoffending, employment rates on release, and violence and self-harm.
The government will use legislation to extend these freedoms much further – enabling prisons to be established as independent legal entities with the power to enter into contracts; generate and retain income; and establish their own boards with external expertise. The proposed changes amount to the biggest structural reform of the prisons system for more than a century.
 
“Nowhere is reform needed more than in our prisons,” said Prime Minister David Cameron. “For too long, we have left our prisons to fester. Not only does that reinforce the cycle of crime, increasing the bills of social failure that taxpayers must pick up. It writes off thousands of people. So today, we start the long-overdue, long-needed change that our prisons need. No longer will they be warehouses for criminals; they will now be places where lives are changed.
 
 These new freedoms sit alongside the government’s commitment to replace decrepit, ageing prisons with modern establishments suitable for the needs of prisoners today – to be built with £1.3bn of investment announced at the Spending Review. More autonomous reform prisons will follow later this Parliament. And the 9 new-build prisons announced at the Spending Review will be established with similar freedoms.”
 
Responding to the Queens Speech, Justice Secretary Michael Gove said: “Prisons must do more to rehabilitate offenders. We will put governors in charge, giving them the autonomy they need to run prisons in the way they think best. By trusting governors to get on with the job, we can make sure prisons are places of education, work and purposeful activity. These reforms will reduce re-offending, cut crime and improve public safety.”
 
Penal reformers welcomed the proposed reforms but with caution. Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “It is hugely encouraging to see that prison reform is at the front and centre of today’s Queen’s Speech. There is no public service in such disarray as the prisons, and the rising number of assaults, deaths by suicide, and incidents of self-injury show that the need for change is urgent.
 
“Ultimately, the success of these reforms will depend on whether the government introduces positive measures to tackle overcrowding by driving down prison numbers.”
Juliet Lyon, Director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: “It’s good that prison reform is at the top of the government’s agenda – for far too long prisons have been our most neglected, least visible public service. The most pressing priority is to restore prison safety and stem the catastrophic rise in suicides, violence and disorder.
 
More freedom for governors, long overdue access to modern IT, sensible plans for release on temporary license and constructive use of tagging to curtail liberty should all be part of a modern justice system.
But reform will run into the sand unless government is prepared to tackle prison numbers and introduce major sentencing reform as part of its groundbreaking Prisons Bill.”















 
http://insidetime.org/a-message-to-the-new-justice-secretary-michael-gove/




 

Friday 3 June 2016

IPP.There are so many problems with the sentence despair is not getting through to the government because of so many barriers .




 

03/06/2016

Families are lobbying  the injustice of the IPP  sentence and informed that  they need a majority of a 100.000 before you can be heard in parliament to stand a chance of tabling questions to the house.This will be challenging  since  there are   4000 families .  The  UK  is not totally  aware of the sentence or its existence.

I question why the  FAMILYS have to  lobby since the  ipp sentence is an on going injustice the government are aware of little of the continuing problems surely they would want to know   but the  families are BATTLEING  to demonstrate  the suffering and despair  by having to continually lobby there MPs. 

What I found to more disgusting is    HUNDREDS of MPs ignoring letters of pleas from the family's and don't reply and a lot of the  Ministry of justice correspondence is repetitive with know transparency .

There has been  accounts of  Lords correspondence stating get a solicitor? The IPP is a specialist area and needs a barrister and but have they overlooked the government took away legal aid?

There are so many problems with the sentence it is causing  despair as the ples are not getting through  because of  the obstacles put in place and as a resulted had lead to a record of deaths and attempted suicides because there unable to cope with this everlasting sentence and no end date .

The author, Bob Knowles, August 2011 has served 9 years on the IMB at HMP Wandsworth. He wrote in a  in a personal capacity back then  The rise, impact and hoped-for death of IPPs
IndependentI was only vaguely aware of IPPs when they emerged from the Criminal Justice Act (CJA) 2003 and were first implemented in 2005. It was reading the expressions of despair and anger they provoked in contributors to a blog that opened my eyes to what this law with its taunting hints of freedom can do to people’s minds. The writers were nearly all family members and friends of IPP prisoners, struggling in the limbo of not knowing when if ever their loved ones would be released. They wrote stark accounts of personal despair and familial breakdown which filled countless pages of this blog from 2007 onwards and made me think that, as a member of the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) in a large local prison with its own proportionate number of IPP prisoners, I could perhaps offer occasional support to these people, many of whom were clearly at their wits’ end.
Lord Hurd of Westwell refers to ‘… the havoc caused by a pre-occupation with risk and the resulting ill-thought- through legislation. Independent Monitoring Board, from insidetime issue August 2011


31 May 2016
Sickening injustice Kafkaesque conditions for the release of IPP prisoners | Letters 
Kafka could indeed have been invented for an indeterminate penalty of civil protection (IPP), but it is even more unjust as the article described in ( Defunct law that holds thousands of prison is branded absurd Clarke 
Not only the men, women and children to spend a few years back the tariff set by the judge, but when they are released in the license to live. Last year, 363 people were returned to prison after suffering years in prison, only to serve through the years throughout the parole process again.
Last week, I met with the prisoner’s family had been given the tariff for one year. After 13 years, he is still in prison. When he is released, probably a couple of years, he will be the life of the license and subjected to recall at any time. Only after another 10 years, he can apply to have the license removed. So far, no one has done this, so we do not know whether it will ever be granted.
We are mass incarceration in this country, not just the scale of the US, but not so very far away. We need to learn from the Americans, who deals with mass incarceration by reducing the excessively long prison sentences. IPP has been deleted, but is still with us – and will be for decades if we do not just get people released, but to deal with the validity of the license envisaged by legislation of Franz Kafka.
Frances Crook
CEO, Howard Federal Penal Reform
Guardian, the BBC, the reform of the prison Trust and Ken Clarke are performed an invaluable service re-exposing the injustice and inhumanity ever visited thousands of prisoners in England and Wales who have served the “punishment” period of time punishment, but still so far punished for crimes they can not prove they did not commit in the future if released – a kind of punitive, indefinite remand certainly unprecedented in a democracy for peace during. Ken Clarke, the Justice secretary to be removed for an indeterminate sentences of public protection (IPP) in 2012. The figures are the Ministry of Justice website either hopelessly out of date or do not distinguish between the IPP and the (very different) for life, or both, but the BBC says there are still about 4000 little hope of ever released, and that nearly 400 have served more than five times the time penalty of their sentences. proposed a simple solution to Ken Clarke before he was spinelessly sacked David Cameron is to abandon the Kafkaesque condition for release that the IPP prisoner must meet the Parole Board that he will not reoffend (naturally impossible task), and to replace the parole board an obligation to provide for release at the end of period penalty, unless it is specific, published reasons to believe that the prisoner poses a serious threat to the public if released.
If enough MPs to receive messages from constituents call on Parliament to make this simple and undeniable change immediately, there’s outside chance that disgusting injustice finally stopped. (Labour apparent silence of the matter is incomprehensible.)
Brian Bardera
London 

 
Ken Clarke abolished imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences in the UK in 2012. ‘We have mass incarceration in this country, not quite on the US scale, but not so very far off,’ writes Frances Crook. Photograph: Felix Clay for the Guardian
Kafka could indeed have invented the indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP), but it is even more iniquitous than described in your article (Defunct law that keeps thousands in jail is branded absurd by Clarke, 31 May).
Not only are men, women and children spending years past the tariff imposed by the judge, but once released they are on licence for life. Last year 363 people were returned to prison after having served years in jail, only to serve more years to go through the whole parole process yet again.
Last week I met the family of a prisoner who had been given a tariff of one year. After 13 years, he is still in prison. When he is released, probably in another couple of years, he will be on life licence and subject to recall at any time. Only after another 10 years could he apply to have the licence lifted. As yet no one has done this, so we don’t know if it will ever be granted.
We have mass incarceration in this country, not quite on the US scale, but not so very far off. We have to learn from the Americans, who are addressing mass incarceration by cutting back on excessively long prison sentences. The IPP has been abolished, but is still with us – and will be for decades unless we not only get people released from prison but deal with the licence period imposed by legislation designed by Franz Kafka.

Frances Crook
Chief executive, The Howard League for Penal Reform
The Guardian, the BBC, the Prison Reform Trust and Ken Clarke have performed an invaluable service in again exposing the injustice and inhumanity still being visited on the thousands of prisoners in England and Wales who have served the “punishment” period of their sentences, but are still being indefinitely punished for crimes they can’t prove they won’t commit in the future if released – a form of punitive, indefinite preventive detention surely unprecedented in a democracy in peacetime. Ken Clarke as justice secretary abolished indeterminate sentences for public protection (IPPs) in 2012. Figures on the Ministry of Justice website are either hopelessly out of date, or fail to distinguish between IPPs and (quite different) life sentences, or both, but the BBC says there are still about 4,000 with little hope of ever being released, and that nearly 400 have served more than five times the period for punishment in their sentences. The simple solution proposed by Ken Clarke before he was spinelessly sacked by David Cameron is to abandon the Kafkaesque condition for release that the IPP prisoner must satisfy the parole board that he or she will not reoffend (an inherently impossible requirement), and substitute a parole board obligation to order release at the end of the punishment period unless it has specific, published reasons for believing that the prisoner will constitute a serious threat to the public if released.
If enough MPs receive messages from constituents calling on parliament to make this simple and uncontroversial change forthwith, there’s an outside chance that a sickening injustice will at long last be ended. (Labour’s apparent silence on the issue is incomprehensible.)
Brian Barder
London




  


Thursday 2 June 2016

No One Knows, IPP Prisoners and those with leaning differences and those given no end date.


There does NOT seem to be any  procedure to ensure the particular support needs of individual in prison are  are  recognised.
I express concern that adults with learning disabilities and other impairments may not be receiving the right to a fair trial, enshrined in Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, as a result of their difficulties in understanding prison the legal and judicial process.
There needs to be routine screening and assessment to identify adults support needs .
Nothing is fair about a system where things are not explained or understood and where people are not properly represented or protected, and the adolescent mental health services, are limited. Staff seem to have no training to help identify when adults might have particular impairments and difficulties.
Adults with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
The impairments and difficulties are · Learning disabilities · Specific learning difficulties, dyspraxia ,dyslexia · Communication difficulties · Mental health problems · Low literacy levels/difficulties with literacy · Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) · Autistic spectrum disorder Can affect an adult or young person’s ability to learn. They can affect their: a snap shot being behaviour or ability to socialise, eg they struggle to make friends
  • reading and writing, eg because they have dyslexia
  • ability to understand things
  • concentration levels, eg because they have ADHD
  • physical ability
A request can also be made by anyone else who thinks an assessment may be necessary, including doctors, health visitors, prison parents and family friends. Commenting on the Criminal Justice Joint Inspectorate report,
Juliet Lyon, Director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: “This report reveals that at every turn people with learning disabilities caught up in the justice system are being let down by a failure to recognise and meet their needs. Often vulnerable and isolated, people with learning disabilities are getting little or no help to understand and navigate a scary and incomprehensible world of police stations ,courts and prison . “In light of this report, the government must honour its Care not Custody promise. 
While the two million-strong coalition, led by the WI and the Prison Reform Trust, welcomes the recent commitment to fund an extension of liaison and diversion trial sites in police stations and courts, it notes that resources have been reduced and the timescale for delivery for a full national service delayed from 2014 to 2017. “For too long people with a learning disability, many of whom should be diverted from police stations and courts into social care, have ended up in prison as a default option, while others are left without the support they need as they continue through the justice process.” Number serving are serving IPP sentences for relatively minor crimes such as burglary ABH with no release date. Numbers not been given courses to prove to the petrol board they are no longer a risk they have to prove they want reoffend , because there not allowed on the courses they have sentences with no release date. 
The prison reform trust 09/09 2015 The study heard from family members, including parents, grand-parents, siblings and partners of young people and adults with particular needs such as mental health problems, learning disabilities or autism in contact with criminal justice services. 20-30% of people in prison are estimated to have a learning disability or difficulty that interferes with their ability to cope with the criminal justice system. 26% of women and 16% of men said they had received treatment for a mental health problem in the year before custody.
Mental health and learning disability care25/11/2015 Sir, Far too often people with mental health needs or a learning disability become caught up in the criminal justice system. 
http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/PressPolicy/News/vw/1/ItemID/277 Dyslexia is a hidden disability thought to affect around 10% of the population, 4% severely. It is the most common of the Specific Learning Difficulties, a family of related conditions with considerable overlap or co-occurrence. Together these are believed to affect around 15% of people to a lesser or greater extent. Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLDs) affect the way information is learned and processed. They are neurological (rather than psychological), usually hereditary and occur independently of intelligence. 
They include:
Dyslexia. Contrary to popular misconception, Dyslexia is not only about literacy, although weaknesses in literacy are often the most visible sign. Dyslexia affects the way information is processed, stored and retrieved, with problems of memory, speed of processing, time perception, organisation and sequencing.
Dyspraxia Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), also known as Dyspraxia in the UK, is a common disorder affecting fine and/or gross motor coordination in children and adults. This condition is formally recognised by international organisations including the World Health Organisation. DCD is distinct from other motor disorders such as cerebral palsy and stroke. The range of intellectual ability is in line with the general population. Individuals may vary in how their difficulties present; these may change over time depending on environmental demands and life experience, and will persist into adulthood. An individual’s coordination difficulties may affect participation and functioning of everyday life skills in education, work and employment. Children may present with difficulties with self-care, writing, typing, riding a bike, play as well as other educational and recreational activities. In adulthood many of these difficulties will continue, as well as learning new skills at home, in education and work, such as driving a car and DIY. There may be a range of co-occurring difficulties which can also have serious negative impacts on daily life. These include social emotional difficulties as well as problems with time management, planning and organisation and these may impact an adult’s education or employment experiences. 
Dyscalculia Dyscalculia is characterised by an inability to understand simple number concepts and to master basic numeracy skills. There are likely to be difficulties dealing with numbers at very elementary levels; this includes learning number facts and procedures, telling the time, time keeping, understanding quantity, prices and money. Difficulties with numeracy and maths are also common with dyslexia.
ADHD/ADD. Signs of Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder include inattention, restlessness, impulsive, erratic, unpredictable and inappropriate behaviour, blurting out inappropriate comments or interrupting excessively. Some people come across unintentionally as aggressive. Most fail to make effective use of feedback. If no hyperactivity is present, the term Attention Deficit Disorder should be used: these individuals have particular problems remaining focused so may appear 'dreamy' and not to be paying attention. People with this condition are very easily distracted, lose track of what they are doing and have poor listening skills. By failing to pay attention to details, they may miss key points. Autistic characteristics can co-exist with the conditions described above. Those affected often demonstrate unusual behaviours due to inflexible thinking, over-reliance on routines, a lack of social and communication skills. People with Asperger Syndrome may have learned to largely conceal their problems but still find any social interaction very challenging and panic easily when they cannot cope. Since Specific Learning Difficulties are still not adequately understood in all schools many children and young people slip through education unidentified and unsupported.
Terminology.
Be aware that similar terminology can lead to confusion. For example, the term 'Learning Difficulties' is generally applied to people with generalised (as opposed to specific) difficulties who are of low intelligence and often lack mental capacity. Many people with Specific Learning Difficulties tend to refer to themselves as having a Specific Learning Difference (both generally abbreviated to SpLDs), while others regard a label containing the word 'Learning' as inappropriate when they are no longer in education.
Areas of typical difficulty for all Specific Learning Difficulties. Information Processing.
  • Difficulties with taking in information efficiently (this could be written or auditory).
  • Slow speed of information processing, such as a 'penny dropping' delay between hearing something and understanding and responding to it.
Memory.
  • Poor short term memory for facts, events, times, dates.
  • Poor working memory; i.e. difficulty holding on to several pieces of information while undertaking a task e.g. taking notes as you listen, coping with compound questions.
  • Mistakes with routine information e.g. giving your age or the ages of your children.
  • Inability to hold on to information without referring to notes.
Communication skills.
  • Lack of verbal fluency and lack of precision in speech.
  • Word-finding problems.
  • Inability to work out what to say quickly enough.
  • Misunderstandings or misinterpretations during oral exchanges.
  • Over-loud speech (which may come across as aggressive) or murmuring that cannot be clearly heard.
  • Sometimes mispronunciations or a speech impediment may be evident.
Literacy.
  • Lateness or difficulty in acquiring reading and writing skills. Some dyslexic adults have severe literacy problems and may be functionally illiterate.
  • Where literacy has been mastered, residual problems generally remain such as erratic spelling, difficulty extracting the sense from written material, difficulty with unfamiliar words, an inability to scan or skim text.
  • Particular difficulty with unfamiliar types of language such as technical terminology, acronyms.
Sequencing, Organisation and Time Management.
  • Difficulty presenting a sequence of events in a logical, structured way.
  • Incorrect sequencing of number and letter strings.
  • Tendency to misplace items; chronic disorganisation.
  • Poor time management: particular difficulties in estimating the passage of time.
Direction and Navigation.
  • Difficulty with finding the way to places or navigating the way round an unfamiliar building.
Concentration.
  • Weak listening skills, a limited attention span, problems maintaining focus.
  • A tendency to be easily distracted, inability to remain focused.
Sensory Sensitivity.
  • A heightened sensitivity to
  • noise and visual stimuli.
  • Impaired ability to screen
  • out background noise or movement.
  • Sensations of mental
  • overload / switching off.
Lack of awareness.
  • Failure to realise the consequences of their speech or actions.
  • Failure to take account of body language.
  • Missing the implications of what they are told or interpreting it over-literally.
Visual Stress. Some people with dyslexic difficulties may experience visual stress when reading. Text can appear distorted and words or letters appear to move or become blurred. White paper or backgrounds can appear too dazzling and make print hard to decipher. Example of Visual Stress: Coping Strategies. It must be emphasised that individuals vary greatly in their Specific Learning Difficulties profile. Key variables are the severity of the difficulties and the ability of the individual to identify and understand their difficulties and successfully develop and implement coping strategies. By adulthood, many people with Specific Learning Difficulties are able to compensate through technology, reliance on others and an array of self-help mechanisms - the operation of which require sustained effort and energy. Unfortunately, these strategies are prone to break down under stressful conditions which impinge on areas of weakness. 
Effects of stress. Research and self-reporting both concur that people with Specific Learning Difficulties are particularly susceptible to stress, compared with the ordinary population, with the result that their impairments become even more pronounced. As a result of their difficulties, many people with Specific Learning Difficulties have little confidence and low self-esteem. Areas of Strength. On the positive side, Specific Learning Difficulties are also linked to a range of skills. These include 'big picture' thinking, problem-solving and lateral thinking abilities, an instinctive understanding of how things work, originality, creativity and exceptional visual-spatial skills. Famous individuals with Specific Learning Difficulties include Einstein, Churchill, JFK, Agatha Christie, Richard Branson, James Dyson, Sir Jackie Stewart, leading artists, architects, engineers, entrepreneurs, sportsmen and many stars of stage and screen. Not all people with dyslexia and related difficulties will have outstanding talents, but all will have comparative strengths and often demonstrate great perseverance and determination. http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/dyslexic/dyslexia-and-specific-learning-difficulties-in-adults
IPP Sentence
Despite its abolition in 2012, the effects of the disastrous IPP sentence continue to be felt by the 4,614 people still in prison, three-quarters of whom have already served their TIME, the minimum time they must spend in prison. A Parole Board facing significant resource pressures, and an increasing backlog of cases, means that many continue to be held years beyond what was anticipated, with little or no prospect of AN END OR release.
Firstly, many prisoners on IPPs have not committed the kind of crimes for which IPPs were designed, but less serious ones. Secondly, there was inconsistency in sentencing even for serious crimes – some prisoners who have committed identical crimes are IPP prisoners, some are not.
This is clearly unjust. Thirdly, IPP prisoners have “indeterminate” sentences, which means that they never know exactly when they will be released, unlike normal prisoners. The effect of living under this level of stress and uncertainty means that IPP prisoners are significantly more likely to suffer mental health issues than other prisoners.
Research indicates that they may be twice as likely to suffer such issues. Fourthly, many of the courses which IPP prisoners are required to complete before they have any chance of being released, are not easily available or not allowed on them . Not all prisons provide them, and / or there is a long waiting list for many courses. 
Through no fault of their own, therefore, many IPP prisoners are unable to “prove” that they are no longer a danger. Fifthly, IPP prisoners, even if released, are on licence for at least 10 years, and can be recalled to prison at any time for even minor offences. They are never allowed to put their crime behind them, because their licence can be extended indefinitely. Their official sentence length is 99 years.
So is anything being done about this?
The government abolished the IPP sentence on December 3rd 2012, so no more could be imposed after that. However, it did nothing at all about the 5-6000 prisoners still serving IPP sentences, and has consistently refused to tackle the problem, saying that more and more IPP prisoners are now being released. Unfortunately, the Parole Board has such a backlog of cases to be heard that according to the MOJ’s own figures, it will take about 9 years at the present rate, for all IPP prisoners to be released (currently around 4,700 in all) – by then all will be over their tariff. In 2012 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that indeterminate sentences breached prisoners’ human rights, because of the fact that rehabilitative courses were not being made available even after the tariff had been served, yet still the situation has not improved.
What are the alternatives?
  • The Government has the power to change the release test for IPP prisoners, in accordance with section 128 of LASPO 2012*
  • The law already provides for long licence periods for ordinary prisoners who need close monitoring on release, by “extended” sentences**. These could be applied to IPP prisoners.
This would give a definite release date, to end the injustice
*Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 **The judge decides how long the offender should stay in prison and also fixes the extended licence period up to a maximum of eight years. The offender will either be entitled to automatic release at the two thirds point of the custodial sentence or be entitled to apply for parole at that point. If parole is refused the offender will be released at the expiry of the prison term. Following release, the offender will be subject to the licence where he will remain under the supervision of the National Offender Management Service until the expiry of the extended period.
 
I further underlined what I would like to see change
  • To request the Secretary of State for Justice to exercise their power to change the release test for the IPP prisoners under Section 128 of the LASPO Act, for an effective system in place that works
  • and the IPP sentences to be converted into extended sentences, as changing the release test will not necessarily get rid of the "99-year-licence" problem.
  • (the Lord Chief Justice agrees that these are the options available for change)
At the very least, the Government must increase the number of Parole Board members, so that hearings can be held more frequently and reduce the current backlog and delays.
  • Learning disabilities. Investigate the failure to provide accommodation and aids for those with learning disabilities as a result have may serve longer custodial sentences than others convicted of comparable crimes. Limited supply with long queues for these and for Parole Board reviews. People who are mentally ill, on medication or have learning disabilities are effectively barred from these courses and barred from the only route out of this awful maze, does not the Disability discrimination Act apply in prison.
I would like your thoughts on "Lex posterior derogat priori"..... · "Lex posterior derogat priori"..... more recent law prevails over an inconsistent earlier law. Can this be applied to this situation, where the IPP has been abolished, but the earlier law is still in force for those who received an IPP before it was abolished?
Reasonable adjustments and adequate alternatives
High Court of Justice ruled that the Secretary of State had failed in its duty at providing reasonable adjustments and adequate alternatives for an prisoners effectively barred from the Thinking Skills Programme because his IQ fell below the required programme admission criteria.
 
Pipeline to Prison:
Special education too often leads to jail for ... bipolar disorder to learning disabilities like ... lead to more arrests and jail time, OFTEN SPENDING DOUBLE THE TIME comparable to others without DIFFERENCES?
Comment;
Jez Owen Abit is concerned about them intergrating people with personality disorders into their so called Risk Assessments. Their risk assessments are perceived risk calculations and are fictitious anyway. So then to start intergrating yet more calculations based on most likely poorly diagnosed assessments of personality disorders will only create more victims of a system that discriminates, persecutes and causes undue trauma on both their subject and family. Best to give everyone an equal chance to get on with their life and stop trying to tell someone's future. There are millions of people with personality disorders and alot are successful business men and women. Don't judge a book by its cover. Thank you Jez you have a valid point .This is the same for those with dyslexia ,dyspraxia and other..... they see these as risk, and if your a risk your likely not to be released or spend double the time compered to others.
“One young man in an recent ruling was told by a judge unlikely see a release until his behavior is consistent.How can you one be consistent with impairments ? 
It is all good and well to demonstrating however it is lobbying that changes laws a majority vote we need and to get that means we  need an army Everyone we can get to post to there MP.
 What does lobbying? https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-an-mp-or-lord/lobbying-parliament/
Who is my Mp! Enter your postcode, on the right side of the linkhttps://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-an-mp-or-lord/contact-your-mp/
“You can make a difference !
what can i do ?
Template letter for MP

House of Commons London SW1A 0AA NAME ADDRESS POSTCODE PHONE NUMBER & MOBILE E-MAIL
Dear .........................................MP
As one of your constituents I would like to Lobby the ipp prisoners and those with learning disabilities , to table questions to the house regarding the injustice. I would be happy to talk to you further about my concerns in person.
I really care about this issue because ADD PERSONAL STORY HERE or add the line this issue has deeply affected my family.
Look forward to hearing from you soon
Yours sincerely,

Sincerely,

Name……