There has been a huge increase in the number of prisoners serving life or indeterminate sentences - Emily Kingham explains why and assesses the impact of this on the prison system
A new type of indeterminate or life prison sentence - the IPP - was introduced in April 2005. This has meant that there has been a significant increase in the number of prisoners without a fixed release date. Writer-in-residence Emily Kingham assesses the impact of this upon the prison system.
Since December last year I have met several prisoners who have received a strange, new sentence called an IPP. What these initials stand for is causing some confusion amongst them. You would think, since it effects them so closely, they would know exactly what it means. However, there are two in particular with whom I work closely, who are unsure as to what has happened to them: "Jimmy" calls his sentence, "Imprisonment for Public Protection". Martin calls his, "Indeterminate Sentence for Public Protection". Martin, in fact, has two such sentences, so I reckon he really does know what he is talking about. But when it comes to understanding what these sentences mean, Martin and Jimmy are not the only ones to be confused by this new sentencing policy. No one in the prison service or the judiciary knows what it means.
In Jimmy's case he has been set a tariff of two years, at which point he will be assessed for parole. If he has complied with his sentence plan, undertaken the courses in behavioural therapy and drug rehabilitation that were recommended, and can convince the board that he no longer poses a risk, he will be released on a life licence. The prospect terrifies him. For once, I do believe that I have a prisoner in front of me who is genuinely ready to make changes in his life. Even so - even if he goes straight - I can understand the fear of living under the threat of life imprisonment. If he makes any wrong move, if he is in the wrong place at the wrong time - if, for instance, a fight breaks out in a chip shop on a Friday night, and he is standing there innocently awaiting his order - with his record, he will be arrested. Furthermore, if someone in that chip shop has a grudge against him and stands witness against him, he will be sentenced to life imprisonment.
By the way, my answer to this hypothetical scenario was, "Don't go to the chip shop on a Friday night, then". I wasn't being facetious. And I don't think he was either when he said, if this is what it takes, he's all set for the Outer Hebrides.
But Jimmy and Martin (who really is a danger to the community and should be in a mental-health secure unit) are just two repeat offenders banged up for violence, theft and general disregard for decent conduct. I am also working with an 18-year-old whose IPP sentence was attached to a tariff of 18 months for street burglary. He had two previous convictions for the same offence so an IPP has been slapped on him (like a preservation order). Every day I meet young men in their twenties who are "on an IPP". In fact, there are currently more prisoners serving indeterminate sentences than there are serving sentences of less than 12 months. The reason for this surge in numbers is that the courts have found IPP (and Martin's interpretation of these italics is the correct one), introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and implemented from April 2005, particularly attractive.
I think this is because they don't know what to do with recidivists and this new sentence makes them feel decisive. And it gives them so much leeway: there are 153 specified offences for an IPP compared to 11 offences for an automatic life sentence. These 153 offences include stalking, exposure and racial assault as well as the more serious, sex and violence offences. The sentence can even be used for a first offence as long as the defendant is deemed dangerous. This is a major departure in British criminal justice brought about by David Blunkett, who, for some unspecified reason, thought it would be a good idea to sentence people based on their potential risk rather than on the facts before the court.
Politicians need to be seen to be doing something. As long as it looks as though you're in control, it doesn't matter what the consequences are. This lack of consideration for others or for the future is somewhat akin to the thought processes found in prisoners on IPP sentences.
But the consequences are this: indeterminate sentenced prisoners account for 11 per cent of the prison population. A significant proportion are young adults aged 18 to 21 years old and children under 18. Over the past year there has been a doubling in the number of children in prison who don't know when they will be leaving, rising from 24 to more than 50. For young adults the rise has been equally dramatic, jumping from 211 to more than 400.
Not surprisingly, the IPP is creating significant challenges for an overstretched prison system. Prisons are supposed to implement a staged movement through the system for lifers and those on indeterminate sentences. This staged movement has collapsed.
For Jimmy, there is further confusion. He received his IPP sentence while on probation, so not only is he serving a new sentence, he is also on recall having broken the conditions of his original licence. The judge ordered that the IPP tariff of two years come into effect after the nine months of recall had been served. The judge made a mistake: this is unlawful and the courts of appeal are already stacking up with these unlawful applications of the tariff. Jimmy should be serving his IPP sentence contemporaneously with his old one. The judge's confusion is understandable, the effects on the prison service are disastrous. Prisoners like Jimmy on an indeterminate life sentence are clogging up local prisons that are not equipped to manage them. Furthermore, category D lifers are remaining held up in category C prisons. Overall there has been a huge reduction in the number of lifers going into open conditions.
As Enver Solomon, deputy director of the Centre for Crime & Justice Studies, wrote in Inside Time:
When long-term prisoners are left languishing in local jails without being moved on it has serious consequences. It remains virtually impossible for somebody in custody serving a life sentence to do any work on reducing their risk to the public until they get to a first-stage lifer prison. Inevitably people's chances of enrolling on the courses and engaging in the programmes that are going to demonstrate to the Parole Board that their risk of re-offending has been markedly reduced are severely and unfairly delayed.It isn't just the prison service that cannot cope with the complexities of this hastily conceived sentencing policy. The Parole Board is struggling, too. The Chair of the Parole Board, Professor Sir Duncan Nichol, has highlighted the absurdity of the fact that many prisoners, like Jimmy and the 18-year-old I mentioned, serving IPP sentences have short tariffs because their offence was not in itself serious. This means that prisoners could be eligible for release very soon after being sent to prison following trial. The danger here is that the prisons will barely have had time to assess the individuals, and the Parole Board's
role in assessing his risk to the public is rendered almost academic by the fact that nothing has changed in the very short period between the sentencing judge deciding he is a significant risk and the Board considering his case … hence an enormous amount of resources are expanded on what can sometimes appear to be a futile exercise.Prisons, probation and the Parole Board have found themselves in a situation that they do not properly understand as a result of sentencing reforms that should have been more carefully considered.
In short, there are currently 1,890 offenders jailed without a fixed release date which means that the UK now has more people behind bars for indeterminate periods than any other country in Europe. And we don't know what to do with them.
Emily Kingham is the pseudonym of a writer-in-residence at a Category B prison in South East England. She is a writer and journalist. To read Emily Kingham's previous columns on prison life see Notes from a Prison.
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my boyfriend is currently serving an ipp sentence for violence, his tariff is 3 years.and i agree the judges r slapping them on people 4 any reason possible. my boyfriend is in are local prison were do not do the courses he needs 2 do and the prison wont help him in any way its a disgrace. all i want to no is a date when he will be coming home, i would of rather him got 6 years than an ipp of 3years.
Posted by: kirbey vickers at July 16, 2007 06:13 PMMy son has an IPP of just 5 months but there is no chance of him geting courses - he could be in there many years. Totaly unfair and unlawful - isn't against his human rights?
Posted by: R.T. at August 12, 2007 11:30 PMMy brother is serving an IPP - and rather than helping him rehabilitate it is destroying him! He was in a local jail offering nothing so moved to a Private Jail over a 100 miles from home, still they offer nothing! And the added bonus is has one visit in 5 wks - not helping! We need any advice we can on speeding up the IPP sentence is there anybody who can help? Or anybody that has a success story on appealing against IPP?
Posted by: RP at October 14, 2007 10:22 AMNo success story, I am sorry to say, but an article in the press on Tuesday 16 Oct gave info from a leaked Government doc that Jack Straw is looking at the possibllity of limiting the IPP sentences to criminals who receive longer jail terms, possibly introducing a minimum tariff below which the IPP would not be available or giving the courts more discretion. So a glimmer of hope. Doesn't help the day to day angst though. My son is in Peterborough prison, where no courses are available, and as a VP, he is locked up most of the time. An 18 month tariff , in my son's case, and any other length of tariff, with no release date to work towards is very inhumane.
Posted by: Pat at October 18, 2007 12:08 PMMy ex-son in law is on an ipp of 18months and is coming into his third year of imprisonment. He is not able to take any courses in the jail he is in. I have written to Jack Straw and the PM and several other influential bodies. The whole IPP system is a disgrace and the lad is being held unlawfully - what is the criminal justice system coming to. He has been in jail for violence before but on this occasion was drunk and abusive but did not hurt anybody. I care for his daughter who is nearly 15 - she was twelve when her dad went to jail - what an awful thing for children to have to deal with to be stigmatised by the fact that her father is a lifer. It is very scary that this has been allowed to happen in this day and age. There must be something we can all do to help our relatives return to their families. Yes some people deserve it but not this lad - I have known him for seventeen years and he does not deserve to be serving a life sentence. It is what happens afterwards that is equally as disturbing as these people will have to watch their backs for life. My grandchildren are without a father for another Christmas - I would like to have a face to face talk with the policy makers - this has destroyed a whole family and done him no good at all to be 'warehoused' with no communication from anybody - no explanation why his parole dates have been cancelled over and over again - what about the solicitors, why aren't they doing their jobs in ensuring that justice prevails - maybe they are as confused as the rest of us by this ridiculous order. Lets hope that sensibility prevails in the end and the Government wake up to the fact that this sentence needs outlawing and somehting needs to be in its place that does protect the public but that is fair and just.
Posted by: helen kinzett at November 19, 2007 07:09 PMMy goodness! My partner was just given an ipp on friday 18th January, I didn't realise how serious it is. The barrister said that he will be appealing against it, but after reading different stuff on the net I am a bit worried now.
Posted by: Lorraine at January 20, 2008 12:51 AMHello everyone,
Please could you sign my petition to parliament by using the link below, if you agree with the content. If you could also forward the link to as many people as possible it would be greatly appreciated. Apologies if you have already recieved this email.
I feel the law needs to be changed to help the falsely accused and wrongfully convicted who have committed no crimes but are serving indefinite sentences nonetheless. At least 200 signatures are required for the government to take notice of my petition. There are 140 signatures to date but the more the better. Since the introduction of the indeterminate sentence for public protection in 2005 it's possible for a person to be detained for up to 99 years if they do not address their offending behaviour. What hope then if you are an innocent person wrongly convicted!? How can anyone be expected to feel remorse and guilt for crimes that never happened? This outrageous sentence must be scrapped as it is adding to the already overcrowded prison system and is placing many innocent people in a bureaucratic limbo from which there is no escape. The man I love is innocent and he is on an IPP SENTENCE...HE FEARS HE WILL NEVER GET OUT.
Posted by: Kaystella at February 2, 2008 08:01 PMhttp://petitions.pm.gov.uk/OUTRAGEOUS/
Just to give a slight glimmer of hope! i have a friend coming to tariff expiry after two and half years. He spent 18 months in a local but did get moved then to 1st stage - keep nattering, get them to keep writing applications to the gov, put a note in IMB box on wing, get your solicitor to keep writing.
He has now completed virtually all courses and reports have been written - tariff exp is June - we will have to wait and see what happens!
But remember - behaviour counts on these IPPs. Keep on enhanced status, keep your nose clean and try and be positive! It has worked for my friend.
Good luck
Posted by: sue at February 21, 2008 09:09 PMl agree ipp sentences need to be abolished its barbaric to imprison people for life they might as well hang them as theres no light at the end of the tunnel l would like to see one of there close relatives in a situation of life imprisonment who pass these laws and feel the heartache l feel B jones
Posted by: brenda jones at March 5, 2008 06:54 PMi was sentanced in 2005 to an ipp of two years, i am now out but did serve 6 months over my time as there was no judge to sit my oral board. i think these sentances are dispicable as it was my first time ever commiting an offence and there was no proof to say i am a danger to the public only to the known victim . my barrister said because i am female the judge wanted to use my Co D and myself as an example. Being out now is not much different sometimes i wish i was in jail as im in a probation hostol and the amount of supervision is so uneccesary. does any one know if Ipps can go on holiday while on license?
Posted by: m'nessa at April 16, 2008 03:16 PMI tried to give a glimmer of hope back in Feb but I need to update you all! My friend is now days from tariff expiry, all courses completed but no hearing date in fact dossier not even complete. And it looks like he'll be recommended for C Cat or D Cat. So it looks like if you do do everything that's expected and actually manage to do your courses it makes no difference they still won't let you out! My question to anyone who fully understands Phase 3 of these IPPs is what else can be done? To prove the risk is reduced and courses have been successful then someone has to take the risk and release them.
Posted by: Sue at May 30, 2008 09:10 PMafter reading all the comments on ipp i am terrified for my son whom as been told he could be facing IPP.I have read somewere on the internet that IPP is to be looked at by jack staw on the 14.july 2008 lets hope its all positive for everyone and theres a dramatic change in the system
Posted by: sandra abbott at July 12, 2008 10:55 PMMy boyfriend is on an ipp, for the offence of basically seeing me and getting me pregnant. I was 15, he was 19. Obviosuly I didn't press charges the police just found out and charged him anyway.
His tariff was 9 months. I am now 16 so when he gets out we wont have any of this trouble anymore coz im legal. But the fact is, we don't no when they will release him.
Although his tariff expired in june, hes just been given a date of 14th august for parole (only two months late) he has done the course he had to do he is enhanced etc . so hopefuly he will get out. altho he has to do a resettlemnt course first which will take another 3 weeks.
Posted by: kellie gains at July 24, 2008 01:06 AMhe is no risk to the public at all an not even a risk to me anymore, hence my age. if they cant see tht they are mad. also he now has a 8 month old son who they are keeping him from. we've been together 3 years the police thort they would split us up but we love eachother.
the ipp sentence is ridiculous something needs doing. and fast. it is the worst thing in the world not having a release date !!
just a reminder as i have written before on the ipp sentencing
Posted by: B Jones at August 20, 2008 09:41 AMwhy has no one in power got rid of this law can they not see how inhuman it is once these people have done there time they should be automaticly released whether they have done courses or not and they caertainly should not be on licence for life yes we are at this moment in time worse than any other country to the way we treat are prisoners they have to tell lies admitting to things that have not happened the way the authorities believe they happened as to get a chance at parole this is wrong its not teaching them in fact it enhances bitterness l am a truthful person may of told a little white lie once or twice in my life but nothing that would l believe spoil my chances of going to heaven and standing before almighty god but can these people make such a claim when they meet there maker B Jones
i myself have a partner on a 3 year ipp sentence and i am also disgusted at these type of sentences. yes he committed a crime but is it really fair to leave prisoners and their loved ones wondering if they will even ever be together again. ihave asked his solicitor if their is anyway they could appeal and seem to have drawn a blank. is there anyone out there who has known anyone whos actually been released on their first parole
Posted by: kerry at August 23, 2008 03:24 PM