Prisons Minister Sam Gyimah is not uptodate with the big picture a good reason why the goverment is in this mess in the first place.

During the past year, 760 prisoners serving indeterminate sentences for public protection (IPPs) have been sent back to jail after release due to breaching their licence conditions.

But these breaches aren’t necessarily dangerous: they can be as minor as returning drunk to an appointed hostel. And once recalled, widespread backlogs in the parole system mean IPP prisoners can face months of delays before a new review is even considered.

Nick Hardwick, chair of the Parole Board for England and Wales, said in a Justice Committee hearing on 18 October that this is now a “critical” problem.

Released IPP prisoners are too easily penalised

The 760 person recall figure is a 22% rise over the previous 12-month period, meaning more IPP prisoners are being penalised for breaching bail conditions. But the parole board states that more than half of these recalls are completely unnecessary.

Speaking to the Justice Committee, Hardwick said [10:38] of IPP prisoners:We are progressing or releasing 75% of the prisoners who come before us. About 50% are getting recalled. When we review that 50%, about… 60% we are then releasing. So that is… not an effectively working system. There is a real problem there… In my view, certainly on recalls… the test for getting recalled is too low

Get a grip’

The Parole Board has long come under fire for the delays in its releasing of prisoners. The Justice Committee hearing on 18 October revealed that 2017 is expected to see £1m in compensation payouts resulting from such delays.

But IPP prisoners face a particularly acute version of the problem. Not only is their first parole hearing potentially subject to delays, but the ease of their recall means they may face the same experience again and again. And the queues grow longer as more are recalled.

The IPP sentence was abolished in 2012 after the European Court of Human Rights branded it “arbitrary and unlawful”. But the ruling did not affect IPP sentences given out before December 2012, meaning many have remained in prison long after their initial sentence duration passed. At present, there are approximately 3,300 IPP prisoners in jail. Hardwick is pushing for the justice system to “get a grip” on the problem. But with the rate of recalls rising, he believes by 2020 that figure is likely to outnumber the 1,500 IPPs waiting to be released for the first time.

System failure

Prisons and Probation Minister Sam Gyimah, also speaking to the Justice Committee, said that IPP prisoners are “incredibly risky” and that he believes that “the system is working”. But evidence suggests that, at the very least, the system is not working for IPP prisoners themselves or their families.

And as the parole board itself is saying, the existing system is failing on its own merits. Prisoners being recalled for petty reasons that result in being released again months later is, as Hardwick said, a “real problem”. The added pressure of unnecessary recall slows the whole parole system, resulting in £1m being paid in compensation.

Prisons are in disarray. And as long as IPP sentences remain in place, there will be thousands unnecessarily weighing down and weighted down by this chaotic system. Many are years beyond their original sentence. Set them free.

Get Involved!

– Support  the campaign for families of IPP prisoners  and Smash IP in the fight against these sentences.

VIDEO https://youtu.be/vHl8FCR2t7g
The CAIRY