Published 28 November 2023
Reforms bring hope to rehabilitated people still serving abolished indefinite sentences. Thousands of rehabilitated ex-prisoners serving long-since abolished indefinite sentences will become eligible to have their licence period terminated earlier as part of new reforms.
more than 1,800 people could see unjust, long-served sentences end by March 2025
reduces numbers still on licence despite being rehabilitated, long after the end of their original sentence
only those living safely in the community are eligible
Offenders released from prison on licence while serving Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences currently have to wait a minimum of 10 years before they can have their licence reviewed by the Parole Board.
The new changes will mean IPP offenders serving their sentence in the community are referred for review 3 years after their first release.
IPP sentences were introduced in 2005, designed to prevent offenders who were considered dangerous from being released even though the offence did not merit a life sentence. There is broad consensus against the IPP sentence and the policy was scrapped in 2012 due to the inconsistent and more frequent application of these sentences than was intended.
If a licence is not terminated at the three-year mark by the Parole Board, it will automatically terminate after a further two years if the offender is not recalled to prison in that time. This is the first time these offenders will have a defined ‘end date’ to their sentence.
Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, Alex Chalk KC, said:
We are taking decisive action to curtail IPP licence periods to give rehabilitated people the opportunity to move on with their lives, while continuing to make sure the public are protected from the most serious offenders.
This is a major step towards wiping away the stain of IPP sentences from our justice system, without compromising public protection.
The changes will be applied retrospectively, meaning licences will immediately end for around 1,800 rehabilitated offenders once the legislation comes into force. Offenders who have been recalled to prison or taken into secure hospitals will not be eligible.
The government has amended its Victims and Prisoners Bill to make these changes which will accelerate the process of reducing the number of people bound by IPP sentences.
Around 800 will become newly eligible for Parole Board consideration by March 2025. The new legislation will also introduce a presumption that the Parole Board will terminate the licence unless it is still required to protect the public to give offenders the best opportunity to move on from their sentence.
Since IPP sentences were scrapped in 2012, the number of unreleased IPP prisoners has been reduced by three-quarters and those in custody are being supported to progress towards release through the government’s refreshed IPP Action Plan.
The legislation is expected to come into force 2 months after the Bill receives Royal Assent.
Published 28 November 2023
Parole Board letter.
Dear Martin Jones
Just wanting to touch base with you on the changes now being instigated by the executive, which are of course extremely welcomed?
I have had a number of calls from family members telling me that their loved ones’ were in tears on the phone when they were told the revision from 10 years to 3 years, with an absolute termination of 5. So many in custody that have had positive release decisions are asking whether their licence will be terminated once they are released.
I am sure that you are undoubtedly very busy trying to work out some sort of schedule for the licence reviews to be done but I would be grateful if you could clarify a couple of questions which I am now being asked on a regular basis.
1) IPPs who’s initial release date was over 5 years ago and who are currently in the community, will their licence now be terminated without the need for a licence review?
2) Those who are currently in custody on recall, who have an initial release date of over 5 years ago, once they get a positive release decision will their licence be terminated upon release?
The final question is when will these changes be implement?
We are of course still concerned about those that as of yet have not been successful at getting a positive release decision as these changes do not help those who have yet not managed to meet the high bar needed to obtain release.
Many thanks for your time
Yours sincerely
Mr J. Owen
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To: Martin
Jones
Subject: Re: IPP review procedure clarification
Thank you jez,
just whats required, clarification.
my apologies foR not always being able to get back each time sooner I have three
long-running cases on the go. i thought i would mention my current legal case
as it could support inmates
My current case is a civil matter, you can’t get legal aid for a civil matter
unless you are willing to pay yourself however i found a way around, you may of
heard about the Exceptional funding cases i didnt t until searched and i
applied
There is the document to fill. In the beginning, I decided to fill them in
myself, but I realized they didn't have a system where they could check your
application was correctly filled in even though they said they would on the
phone.
I have applied to legal aid under Dyslexia as this comes under communications
and of course, an advocate who the legal aid 3rd part y solicitor who fills in
the forms, free, which in my case they did. I am now awaiting a decision.
i read you can apply for exceptional circumstances for many different reasons,
believe it's a learning disability this could be reading and writing, ADHD,
autism, mental health, emotional difficulties, etc anything that affects
communication.
Although you might be capable of doing the case yourself if you had the
resources, you might be in a situation that means you can’t access what you
need to do the case. You might be in prison, or in another country where you
don’t have access to the information you need. even open to IPP prisoners. a
case might be so complicated that you still can’t do it on your own.
This is most likely to be the case if the case involves a reading difficulty.
legal issue that any untrained person couldn’t realistically handle themselves.
iPhone asked for reasonable adjustments to fill in the forms for the
exceptional funding legail aid 3rd party firm does it on the phone or by video
link and sends it back to you to send to legal aid . the firm is a third party
company that does the form on behalf of legal aid. 10 days for urgent
non-urgent is 25 days
do you think this will be helfull and if so this could be shortened with links?
what are your thoughts could this be useful info for inmates in or out of
prison for those with disabilities or none individuals whose cases are
difficult or need advice? i added links
Applying-for-ECF-without-a-rep.pdf (publiclawproject.org.uk)
Applying-for-ECF-without-a-rep.pdf (publiclawproject.org.uk)
Katherine
gleeson
katherinegleeson@aol.com
Thank you jez
IPP
support group
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Court of Appeal quashes sentence
06 Jul 23
Court of Appeal
quashes sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection
The Court of Appeal
granted a 13 year extension of time and allowed the appeal of PF against the
sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection imposed in 2010 for an offence
of Aggravated burglary. PF had remained in prison since his sentence. Farrhat Arshad,
representing PF, argued that a lesser sentence would have adequately protected
the public and argued that the trial judge had erred in imposing the draconian
sentence. The Court agreed and replaced the sentence with an Extended Sentence
resulting in the appellant’s immediate release.
Farrhat was
appointed to represent PF by the Registrar of Criminal Appeals.
Court
of Appeal quashes sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection | Doughty
Street Chambers
Chez Nic - Here’s Full video I did with sky recently On ipp for... | Facebook
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