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..
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.
Four-fifths (81%) of people serving an IPP sentence are
still in prison despite having passed their prison date tariff expiry date – the
minimum period they must spend in custody.
Prison: the facts
Each year the Prison Reform Trust publish the ‘Bromley Briefing’ which is a collation of data from all over the prison system. 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. Below we have picked a selection from the latest published briefing – Summer 2016
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.
- The average age of people dying from natural causes in prison between 2007 and 2010 was 56 years old.
- 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. They now account for nearly three in five (56%) sentenced prisoners.
- 11,505 people are currently serving indeterminate sentences. 64% (7,372) are serving a life sentence while the remaining 36% (4,133) are serving an Indeterminate sentence for Public Protection (IPP).
- Prison 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.
- Increasing numbers of people in prison don’t know if, or when, they might be released.
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.
- Emergency services were called out more than 26,600 times to incidents in UK prisons in 2015. 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.
- Short prison sentences are less effective than community sentences at reducing reoffending. Despite this, nearly half (48%) of all people entering prison under sentence are serving a sentence of six months or less.
- There were six homicides in prison in the 12 months to 2016, the highest number on record.
- 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.
- 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.
- People were held for 44 months beyond tariff on average – however many still in prison will have been held for considerably longer.
- Indeterminate sentences account for 16% of the sentenced prison population, up from 9% in 1993.
- 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.
- 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.
- IPP prisoners 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.
- 448 young people aged 15-24 have died in prison in the last 20 years. 87% of these deaths were classified as self-inflicted.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Between 1993 and 2015 the prison population in England and Wales increased by more than 41,000 people, a 92% rise. Inside times- http://www.insidetime.org/prison-the-facts/
According to Vice News 16 IPP Deaths and growing....
“Michael Gove quoted post date 2010 We should not compel those who have made mistakes to live forever defined by those mistakes. He did not understand the 2 strike IPP system for lifers are forced to live defined by their mistakes.
"It is important we urgently address the 128 laspo Act before it is to late to do so". Many chose to leave the European Union. Whether this helps or hinders those of us who want to see changes in the legal system or assist the falsely accused is largely up to us and how we respond. On the bad side, leaving the European Union means that we’ll no longer have the protection of the European Court if the UK Government (of any party) make bad laws. On the good side, the European Court will no longer be able to effectively overturn or modify good UK law.
We are asking Elizabeth Truss to be committed to change the situation for IPP prisoners. Help us get justice by posting the Template provided. 38 Degrees have informed me that 2,150 and growing have written to Elizabeth Truss asking her to make these changes urgently.26.599, say yes on the 38 degree on line petition. IPP ON BBC 2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03z6rp0
Template letter
<Your Name>
Address>
<Town>
<City>
<Post Code>
<Date>
FAO Rt Hon. Ms Elizabeth Truss
Ministry of Justice
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ
Dear Rt Honourable Elizabeth Truss, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
IPP PRISONERS
Congratulations on being elected as the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice to the 2016 Parliament. I am asking for your support on an issue that is extremely important to my family and myself, and also for your advice on how we can achieve the necessary changes in the law to protect victims both in our constituency and UK-wide.
We are asking you to be committed to change the situation for IPP Prisoners.
Firstly, we would ask you to exercise your powers to change the release test for the IPP Prisoners under Section 128 of the LASPO Act, so that the basic premise is that the Prisoner is safe to be released, unless there are exceptionally strong arguments against this.
Secondly, we would also ask you to remove the “99 year licence”. As a consequence of this licence a large number of potential workers (ex-Prisoners) get ignored by employers because of their Criminal Record. Everyone should be entitled to a second chance in life whether they had committed a crime or not. Currently, the liability of the licence and the discrimination not only affects the Prisoners themselves but their family’s health and mental state.
At the very least, 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, thus giving them a definite release date and an end to the often unbearable uncertainty and hopelessness of their situation.
They have paid the penalty and done their time – sometimes several times over or on most occasions for nothing. Now it is time to give them their lives back.
< if you have a PERSONAL STORY HERE> - add the line: “This issue has deeply affected ...
I am looking to you to act justly and to put an end – finally - to this “stain on the British justice system”.
Yours sincerely,
A snap shot Summary
Impact of a 99 year licence to me my family / children/ work/ health?
I got out of prison and recalled 3 times in 2 years this will continue for 99 years after my release I will wait on remand each time with no legal aid.
IPPS on release with a 99 year licence has huge problems along with not being released from the clutches of probation 7 years after they have been released.
I got out of prison and recalled 3 times in 2 years this will continue for 99 years after my release I will wait on remand each time with no legal aid.
IPPS on release with a 99 year licence has huge problems along with not being released from the clutches of probation 7 years after they have been released.
Those IPPs 2 strikes unless we change the law the life licence will remain .
Those on release have parole officers change at a alarming rate which is damming as officers don't get a chance to get to know the person therefore how can you progress you forward. Those on release continue to build a repo with there Parole officers only to start again and again with new parole officers …..
Those on release have parole officers change at a alarming rate which is damming as officers don't get a chance to get to know the person therefore how can you progress you forward. Those on release continue to build a repo with there Parole officers only to start again and again with new parole officers …..
prolonging and delaying not because of an offenders actions but because ex offenders gets kick around like a football many go through 7 parole officers in 1 year. Parole officers are “unable to appreciate they are rehabilitating because they can’t put it into prospective. Newly assigned probation officers are left reading ex-offender records from paper, but not as transparent as knowing the person, personally, and is only as good as notations made.
It is fundamentally key for the probation officer to get to know a person long-term and enough to gain trust to understand him or her ,to eliminate any concerns, distrust, to make decisions fairly and on time.
Reform for parole board was recorded "before 2010, less talk many could of ended there licence and attendance with probation but still attending probation 7 years after leaving prison. something is terrible wrong more so being recalled for none offence, persistently. “The reasons for which people can be recalled are broad and often vague. They include: failing to be ‘of good behaviour’, ‘failure to keep in touch’ and ‘drugs/alcohol’ amongst others. These encompass a wide range of behaviours which would be of no interest to the authorities if a person were not on licence.”
Then you learn why they have been privatising the Parole Board and it all makes since. There is no incentive to let them go when they ate your wage.
Far from transforming rehabilitating for an IPP on 99 year licence being a joke, privatising the probation service and making more people subject to licence conditions has sped up the revolving door, returning people to prison and putting more pressure on a system that fails everyone.
“In the majority of cases the initial decision to recall to custody is made by a single probation officer and invariably rubber-stamped by the Secretary of State for Justice. Who likely never got to know you
Rehabilitation if you have suffered injustice like the IPP it does not work . Those who are kidnapped suffer the same injustice but the injustice continues with the IPP prisoners as they get recalled for the same injustice for the rest of their life .
YOU DONT HAVE TO GIVE USE FIGURES WE KNOW.
Far from transforming rehabilitating for an IPP on 99 year licence being a joke, privatising the probation service and making more people subject to licence conditions has sped up the revolving door, returning people to prison and putting more pressure on a system that fails everyone.
“In the majority of cases the initial decision to recall to custody is made by a single probation officer and invariably rubber-stamped by the Secretary of State for Justice. Who likely never got to know you
Rehabilitation if you have suffered injustice like the IPP it does not work . Those who are kidnapped suffer the same injustice but the injustice continues with the IPP prisoners as they get recalled for the same injustice for the rest of their life .
YOU DONT HAVE TO GIVE USE FIGURES WE KNOW.
The submission states: “Recent figures from the Ministry of Justice show that IPP prisoners are much more likely and have been self-harm than other prisoners, including those serving life sentences.
The prison reform, 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’
Branding the IPP ‘absolutely inhumane and unfair’, he said that the sentence ‘totally undermined the fundamental principle of fairness.
Comments
Eion mcLennan Murray
who said at his annual conference of his association ipp was a blunt injustice release them, unless there is a clear evidence a prisoner is not safe.
Lord chief justice it seems to have all the faults, but no one seems to be fighting for them to be dealt with justly.
Lord brown called to postdate Gove top end the terrible scourge. Its a preventative detention, alien to our traditional criminal justice approach.
Lord Dholakia
the government should be serious about their pledge to tackle the issue. what steps are we talking to end this injustice.
“Michael Gove I remember your words we should not compel those who have made mistakes to live forever defined by those mistakes. 2 strike ipp system for lifers are forced to live defined by their mistakes.
Juliet Lyon, former Director of the Prison Reform Trust, spoke to the meeting. She was particularly sympathetic to those maintaining innocence, and expressed deep concern for those in prison over tariff. The abolition of Indeterminate sentences for Public Protection (IPP) was achieved in 2012. This was a huge success for reformers, and occurred through the pressure of the European Court, but was not made retrospective, so many prisoners are still held without a release date, and their term is often way beyond the intended length of sentence envisaged by the trial judge.
But the horrific experiences of the wrongly convicted and their families also need to be told. They are victims, just as those who have been abused.
Our group has started the task of gathering information about the numbers of prisoners in this situation, and we are seeking specific examples of prisoners’ experiences, for example those serving sentence well over tariff, or suffering loss of privilege.
Any reputable sources of data would be welcome. While it is important to gather actual numbers of cases, we would like to back this up with individual stories.
Please respond to: Prisoners Maintaining Innocence c/o 3-5, South Street, Havant, Hants PO9 1BUhttp://www.insidetime.org/we-hear-you/
I am a former barrister and am both blind and deaf, and would like to point out that prisons as public institutions are subject to the Equalities Act. Yet, disabled prisoners face a very hard time whilst incarcerated.http://www.insidetime.org/speak-up-i-cant-hear-you/
Dear friends I ask you to go a step further and sign the Petition , 26.599 are doing the same !
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/free-the-remaining-ipp-prisoners?source=facebook-share-button&time=1457618246