‘Time my son was released’
A mother is campaigning to free her son from prison after he was given an unfixed jail sentence.
Christopher Wilkins has spent almost 10 years inside after being convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and assault causing actual bodily harm.
The 31-year-old was given an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence in December 2007, designed to keep dangerous offenders behind bars beyond their tariffs until they could prove they no longer posed a threat to society.
It was abolished in 2012 but it is thought more than 5,000 inmates still serve IPPs today.
Carol Wilkins, 56, says her son has done his time after serving his minimum term of three-anda-half years.
She said: “Chris and I have never denied he should have been punished, but he has done over his tariff for his crime now.
“He was just a young, stupid little boy.”
He is imprisoned at HMP Swaleside, Eastchurch, a Category B men’s prison.
She added: “Chris was sentenced at the age of 21. He still hasn’t got a release date, so there is no end in sight for him or his family. If the IPP sentence has been abolished, why leave people that have been sentenced with it still without a release date?”