1.
Oxford student 'too clever for jail' to appeal suspended sentence for stabbing boyfriend
An Oxford University student deemed “too clever” to go to prison after she stabbed her boyfriend is challenging her suspended sentence.
Lavinia Woodward, 25, who was given a 10-month suspended jail term, will deliver her application to overturn the decision to leading judges in London on Friday.
The aspiring heart surgeon had admitted knifing Thomas Fairclough in the leg with a bread knife as well as throwing a glass, a jam jar and a laptop at him at Christ Church College in 2016.
She had previously tried to take her case to the Court of Appeal, where the case will be heard this week, but her application was rejected.
He realised she had been drinking and when Woodward discovered he had contacted her mother she became "extremely angry" and began throwing objects, before stabbing him in the leg with a bread knife.
Passing sentence on Woodward, who voluntarily suspended her studies at Oxford, Judge Ian Pringle QC said there were "many mitigating features" in her case and that he found she was "genuinely remorseful".
He told her: "Whilst you are a clearly highly intelligent individual, you had an immaturity about you which was not commensurate for someone of your age."
The judge said Woodward had "demonstrated over the last nine months that you are determined to rid yourself of your alcohol and drug addiction, and have undergone extensive treatment including counselling to address the many issues that you face".
Another news states https://www.aol.co.uk/news/2018/06/07/oxford-student-who-stabbed-boyfriend-appeals-over-suspended-jail/
2.
Leroy Douglas Jailed for stealing a mobile phone seven years ago He was given an IPP effectively a life sentence.
IPP The sentence that tortures you on the inside and when you get out too. Inexcusable persistent persecution.
The family of a Cardiff prisoner jailed for stealing a mobile phone seven years ago have launched a bid to have him freed.
Leroy Douglas’ family believe his seven years behind bars is an excessive punishment for a crime that originally carried a two-and-a-half year tariff.
Seven years later, Leroy is still behind bars in a Category B prison 163 miles away from his Cardiff family home because he was given an IPP (Imprisonment for Public Protection) sentence for street robbery.
The IPP sentence was introduced under the Criminal Justice Act 2003. It was intended to protect the public against criminals whose crimes were not serious enough to merit a normal life sentence but who were regarded as too dangerous to be released into society when the terms of their original sentence had expired.
It was abolished in 2012 and campaigners have called for a review of those people who are still in prison on IPP sentences.
Leroy’s uncle Forrest Douglas said the 32-year-old has now completed 35 courses as ordered by the legal system during his time behind bars.
He said there are two courses now outstanding but that he is unable to complete these at HMP High Down in Surrey where he is currently being held.
Mr Douglas said his nephew has also been moved from prison to prison at least 10 times “through no fault of his own” and that he has been moved to a segregation unit and is on suicide watch.
He said they are now hoping Leroy’s parole hearing will be held in June as he claimed his last hearing was back in 2011.
Mr Douglas also claims that a pre-sentence report was never ordered and that Leroy was sentenced without this which meant his dependency on class A drugs at the time was not recorded.
Mr Douglas said this was “disappointing” and believes it could have influenced the sentence.
He said they would now like Leroy to appear before the parole board for an oral hearing and for his case to be reviewed to look at the legitimacy of the sentencing process that led him into prison in the first place.
He also said Leroy is a category C prisoner and has been at HMP High Down, which is a category B prison, for at least three months. Mr Douglas said Leroy now needs to be moved to a category D prison which would have open conditions and would allow him to visit home.
He said: “He’s been given an IPP and spent seven years in prison. But there’s murderers and paedophiles walking out.
“I don’t think I would be able to survive it.
“Leroy deserved to serve a sentence but surely this sentence is disproportionate.”
Leroy’s mother Gina Douglas, from Splott, said she hasn’t seen her son for six years and is worried about his health.
She said he has two children and that the whole family now want him home.
Gina said she speaks and writes to her son and that he keeps asking her why he’s still there.
She said: “He needs to go to an open jail. He says ‘I want to come home. I’m sick of jail. Why are they keeping me in here mum?’”
Gina said Leroy’s cousin recently died and they are hoping he will be allowed to attend the funeral.
She described her son as a “decent intelligent boy” and said he took the phone from a friend but that there was no violence and that he was under the influence of drugs at the time.
“He knows what he did was wrong. But why is he still in jail?,” she asked.
A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: “The release of prisoners serving indeterminate sentences is entirely a matter for the independent Parole Board, who must be satisfied that an offender can be managed safely in the community.
“The Board considers a range of factors that are likely to contribute to a reduction in risk, including behaviour and progress in custody.”
Leroy's family have received support from Shirley Debono who led a campaign for the release of her son Shaun Lloyd who served an IPP sentence before he was released earlier this year after eight years in jail.
Shirley, from Adamsdown, said she has been writing to Leroy for 18 months.
She said: “The likes of Leroy are never going to progress with the system. We’re in the position now that some IPP prisoners might not get out of prison.
“He’s a category C prisoner who by now should have progressed into open conditions.
“Leroy’s case is heart rendering. I don’t know how his family cope.
“He sees no light at the end of the tunnel. He needs to be moved to a category C prison as soon as possible.”
In a letter to Shirley on March 3 this year, Leroy wrote: “I’ve been rotting in jail for eight years now yet the judge only gave me two years six months IPP.”
He said the number of courses has made his release “impossible”, adding: “It’s a cruel, inhumane and sad existence.”
The public/private Law Divide
Your face might tell the judges if your rich or poor.
Privileged people behaved consistently worse than others in a range of
situations, with a greater tendency to lie, cheat, take things meant for
others, cut up other road users, not stop for pedestrians on crossings,
and endorse unethical behaviour, researchers found.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/feb/27/upper-class-people-behave-selfishly
Despite people from the higher social classes having greater opportunities to pursue education and knowledge, an increased focus on self-reliance and on themselves as individuals may hobble their ability to make a success of resolving conflicts moreover have a get out of jail card.
The law to change we want fairness and put an end to judges making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit: race, class, convictions, religious intolerance and discrimination.
Is law for the rich,no law for the poor ?
Howard League i wanted to ask what more they can do to take further legal action regarding the IPP prisoners.
RE: IPP Campaign and legal
From: Info <Info@howardleague.org>
To: 'Katherinegleeson' <katherinegleeson@aol.com> ...
Date: Tue june 2018 10:11
Dear Katherine Gleeson
Thank you for your email about IPP prisoners. The Howard League has been focussing on reforming the life licence aspect of the sentence. Over 1,000 men and women have been released from an IPP sentence and set up to fail, only to be returned to prisons. We were hoping to get an amendment to legislation but this now looks increasingly unlikely as the Parliamentary timetable is clogged up with Brexit legislation and debate. For the moment we are only able to press probation to avoid recalls if at all possible. We will continue to work on the issue in collaboration with other organisations and with families.
Frances Crook has asked me to pass on her kind regards and to assure you that the plight of IPP prisoners is an issue that she is committed to.
Best wishes
The Howard League.
Jez Frustrating 
😠We need them to continue to press for a change in the test for release which doesn't need parliamentary authority. Also the point needs to continually pressed that the sentence was originally designed for a few hundred people a year, not the thousands which it was used on and of course the statistical data that shows we have more people on indeterminate sentences than Germany, France & Spain combined. We either are an island full of dangerous people or we are persecuting people. I will also write to the Howard League in the next week or so to press the point across.
😠We need them to continue to press for a change in the test for release which doesn't need parliamentary authority. Also the point needs to continually pressed that the sentence was originally designed for a few hundred people a year, not the thousands which it was used on and of course the statistical data that shows we have more people on indeterminate sentences than Germany, France & Spain combined. We either are an island full of dangerous people or we are persecuting people. I will also write to the Howard League in the next week or so to press the point across.
We need answers
Referring to the
Thematic report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons unintended consequences Finding a
way forward for prisoners serving IPP sentences
November 2016, page 7
Which states clearly:-
·
There are three main reasons why decisive action
must be taken to improve this situation. Firstly, for many of the IPP
prisoners, it is not clear that holding them well beyond their end-of-tariff
date is necessarily in the interests of public protection, and therefore there
are issues of fairness and justice.
·
Secondly, the cost to the public purse of
continuing to hold the high numbers of IPP prisoners is significant.
·
Thirdly, the pressures IPPs exert on the
system in terms of risk management activity, demand for offending behaviour
programmes and parole processes is significant. Resources are being stretched
increasingly thinly and there are risks that prisoners will struggle to access
the support they need and that delays will increase still further.
From the above I want to clarify what the Parole board has
actually been issued with by the secretary for state to address these points.
·
What extra resources have you been
issued by the secretary of state to reduce significantly the delays in the
parole process to better help rehabilitate the many prisoners on the IPP
sentence?
Main recommendation
·
The Secretary Justice should take immediate
action to ensure adequate resources and timely support are available to work
with IPP prisoners to reduce theirrisk of harm to others and to help them
progress through the custodial system towards consideration for release by the
Parole Board ).
To Parole Board
·
The
Parole Board information and management systems should be used to identify the
reasons why IPP prisoners are turned down for progression and/or release on Licence and this should inform work in
prisons to reduce their risk.
·
Decision-making
about the recall decision for IPP sentence prisoners should be expedited.
David Guake
·
What has David Guake done since taking
up his post to better help the Parole Board make a diagnosis of the actual risk
an IPP sentenced prisoner actually represents to the public and how are you
evidencing these changes to evaluate their effectiveness to ensure that IPP’s are
being effectively rehabilitated.
·
How can you evidence that the
rehabilitation needs of long serving IPP prisoners are actually being met?
·
Since the Warboys case what are you
doing differently and will this make the system slower or faster?
·
If an Offender Manager doesn’t approve
release of an over tariff IPP prisoner are the parole board now more or less
likely to still direct release since the Warboys case?
·
Have you expedited the recall decision
making regarding IPP sentenced prisoners as recommended within the Unintended
Consequences report page 13 and how are you able to evidence this?
The
sentence was intended to ensure that high-risk individuals served a minimum
term in prison, during which time they would undertake work to reduce the risk
they posed, and at
the point where sufficient risk reduction had been achieved they
would be released by the Parole Board. Page 18 . Referring to the above section the following questions are
directed to better understand how the parole board views its understanding and
effectiveness and what they actually see their role regarding its purpose and
whether that purpose has changed.
·
I refer to page 18 section 3.6 of the
unintended consequences report (read it to clarify) Do you feel this
remit has changed bearing in mind a large percentage of IPP’s have been
released and recalled for minor breaches of their licence?
·
How effective has it been for the
purpose of rehabilitation for additional detention after a recalled IPP comes
back up for parole who has not committed a further offense whilst on licence
and has this lead to a lesser or more wiliness to engage by the prisoner.
It is
important to emphasise that we are not advocating that IPP prisoners should
circumvent the existing arrangements to protect the public around ROTL, but
that with current legislation most people serving IPP sentences would have a
determinate rather than
indeterminate sentence, and the vast majority are well over
tariff. We consider that the
expansion of ROTL to those IPP prisoners in closed conditions
deemed eligible may be one
means of progressing those stuck in the prison system towards a
safe and more speedy
release. Page 44
The following questions are to see if this has been a direction
they have attempted to expedite and whether they have been given the necessary
powers to direct this.
Parole board
·
Has the parole board been able to
progress IPP’s better through the ROTL process as recommended in section 6.13
page 44 of the Unintended consequences report (read it to clarify) to better
help reintegration into the community and improve rehabilitation whilst
protecting the public?
·
Can you give a figure of how many IPP
prisoners have been progressed onto ROTL and of those that have how many
progressed onto licence successfully.
.
the
recall rate for IPP prisoners is very high compared with some other categories
of
offenders: in 2015, around 500 IPP sentence prisoners were
released, but 391 were recalled
in this period. Most of this was not related to reoffending, but
rather to 'risky' behaviour such as the use of alcohol/drugs, which can still
manifest in the community. In addition, through discussion with recalled IPP
prisoners, there is some anecdotal evidence that gaps in the provision of some
key community services, for example mental health services, can lead
to a breakdown of the release plan. However, the Parole Board
says the serious reoffending
rate for IPP prisoners on
release is very low, estimated at less than 1% (page 47)
What I’m trying to understand from this is can we conclude from
the evidence that there is a disproportionate correlation regarding the recall
of IPPs and determinate prisoners and also a disproportionate level of
perceived risk between the two groups? Is an IPP less of a risk to the public
and if so is the calculations of risk properly identify this?
·
Considering
the extremely low reoffending rates of IPP prisoners as stated on page 47 of
the report, estimated at LESS than 1%, is the assessment of risk to the public
taking this into account?
·
Are you
able to explain the cause of the high levels of recalls for IPP’s as it doesn’t
appear to reflect their actual danger within reoffending rates?
·
Would it
not be easier for the parole board to make a more accurate assessment of risk
posed by over tariff IPP’s by having the argument for continued detention being
made by the state?
Nick Hardwicks statement page 50 of report
We could reduce the number of IPP prisoners in prison to about
1,500 by 2020.
If ministers want to go further and faster than this that will
require legislative or policy changes. Options might include:
evising the risk test so that prisoners only continue to be
detained if there is evidence they remain a danger to the public;– introducing
that measure just for ’short-tariff’ IPPs – those who received a tariff of two
years or less but remain in prison long after their tariff has expired because
they are unable to prove their riskhas reduced;– taking executive action to
release IPP prisoners who have now served longer
·
Do you feel that you are currently
still able to deliver the target suggested by Mr Hardwick that you can reduce
the IPP population in prison to 1,500 by 2020 and if not why not?
·
Are you able to see if IPP’s are more
or less likely to engage positively with the parole process the longer they are
held over tariff?
·
Have you seen an increase or decrease
since 2016 in the timely delivery of proper assessments and management plans
for parole hearings?
Hoping that
some of these questions are helpful and from that you can put together a letter
to Mr David Gauke Justice Minister in an effort to help him see sense.
Referenced:https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2016/11/Unintended-consequences-Web-2016.pdf
..........................................................................................................
“What sentence am I serving? Has the ‘two-strikes’ law been replaced by the IPP sentence? I mention this because there are significant differences in that the two-strikes was an automatic sentence yet the IPP is diffrent. Can Inside Time shed some light on this issue, as it would appear that I am possibly serving a sentence under an Act that is no longer in use?” inside times
Set up to fail: http://www.russellwebster.com/martin-jones2/?platform=hootsuite
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/campaign-free-leroy-douglas-jailed-7012832
insidetime.org
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/parole-board-information-on-indeterminate-sentence-prisoners-isps
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