Fresh proposals for panel of judges to reconsider cases of every IPP prisoner

Peers have called for a panel of judges to reconsider the plight of every prisoner languishing on an indefinite jail term.

Edward Garnier KC, a former solicitor general under the Conservative government, has proposed the formation of a specialist panel to review the cases of each prisoner still serving an abolished Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) jail term.

He told The Independent that too many IPP prisoners are “now victims of state action or lack of it” as he urged the government to “fix this broken system”.

In an amendment tabled to the Sentencing Bill, which is due to be debated in the House of Lords at report stage in the new year, he has called for the justice secretary to appoint 12 current or former crown court judges.

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Judges would then review each case – considering the prisoner’s offending, how long they have served, their risk to the public and what support they would need in the community – and decide whether they should be released on licence.

However, if the justice secretary disagrees with the panel’s decision to free a prisoner, they would have the power to decline their release.

In cases where the prisoner is suffering from a mental disorder or would present a risk to the public or themselves on release, judges would also consider whether they should be transferred to hospital for treatment.

Another amendment, tabled by John Thomas, Britain’s former top judge, calls for IPP prisoners to be given a release date within two years of their next parole hearing.

The proposals come after the government has repeatedly refused to resentence almost 2,500 inmates still trapped on IPP jail terms.

The open-ended sentences were abolished in 2012, but not retrospectively. This has left thousands already sentenced incarcerated without a release date until they can convince the Parole Board they are safe to be released.

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Victims of the scandal whose tragic cases have been highlighted by The Independent include Leroy Douglas, who has served almost 20 years for stealing a mobile phone; Thomas White, 42, who set himself alight in his cell and has served 13 years for stealing a phone; and Abdullahi Suleman, 41, who is still inside 19 years after he was jailed for a laptop robbery.

The Independent has repeatedly called for all IPP prisoners to have their sentences – which have been branded “psychological torture” by the UN – reviewed.

However, the government has insisted it will not consider any measures that would free prisoners who have failed to pass the Parole Board’s release test or compromise public protection. Without government support, both amendments are unlikely to succeed.

Lord Garnier said the government is “terrified” an IPP offender will be released and then commit a serious crime, but lacks the “sense of purpose” needed to finish the job it started when the sentence was abolished in 2012.

“What I propose, and Lord Thomas proposes, are amendments designed to make the government think progressively, inventively and humanely and to improve the internal administration of the licence and custody systems connected to IPPs,” he added.

“Too many of these defendants have been recalled for trivial reasons, have become institutionalised by the state, and are now victims of state action or lack of it.

“If they are unreleasable it is probably because the state has made them so, rather than that they are the same dangerous criminals that they were when sentenced many years ago.”

During a heated debate at the committee stage of the Sentencing Bill earlier this month, Lord Thomas warned the government would have blood on its hands if it failed to act to help IPP prisoners. At least 94 inmates have died by suicide after losing hope of getting out.

Lord Thomas said: “If we don’t act now, we will have, and I use this word deliberately, blood on our hands.

“We cannot shirk the responsibility for rectifying an injustice. And what an injustice this is.”

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Labour peer Tony Woodley, who is backing Lord Garnier’s bill and has repeatedly called for IPP prisoners to be resentenced, said ministers are “defending the indefensible”.

A damning inquest this month concluded that the IPP jail term was the most significant factor in the suicide of Taylor Atkinson, 50, who took his own life after telling his partner “the only way out for me is in a bodybag”.

Prisons minister James Timpson has also tabled an amendment which would allow released IPP prisoners to apply for their licence to be terminated after two years in the community, reducing it from three years.

However, campaigners United Group for Reform of IPP (UNGRIPP) say the government has spent too long tinkering “at the edges” of the jail term without giving prisoners a release date.

They argue that both Lord Garnier’s and Lord Thomas’s proposals, if they were supported by the government, could “end the cycle of despair and injustice that has gripped thousands of families for nearly two decades”.

“For too long, the government has tinkered at the edges of a sentence it admits is a ‘stain’ on our justice system, while leaving the core of the problem – indeterminacy – untouched,” a spokesperson added.

“This sentence has already claimed too many lives through suicide and we fear many more will be lost if we carry on along the same path; we urge the government to stop hiding behind the politics of fear and finally pull this injustice up by its roots by supporting a true end to the IPP sentence.

“Families cannot wait for another decade of ‘action plans’ that fail to deliver the one thing they need: a date for hope.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “It is right that IPP sentences were abolished and we continue to provide additional support to prisoners serving them.”

“Every IPP prisoner is entitled to a parole review at least every two years – and no one is kept in prison unless the independent Parole Board judges they still pose a serious risk.”