Justice? It just created a monster
DAD FIGHTING FOR RELEASE OF SON ATTACKS SENTENCE
DISTRAUGHT dad Maurice Stevens says the justice system has “created a monster” after keeping his son behind bars for 12 years.
Danny Weatherson has fought a long battle for freedom after being caught up in the controversial Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) programme.
The sentences were axed in 2012 but there are more than 3,000 people in England and Wales with IPPs, meaning they have no release date.
Now the chairman of the Parole Board, Nick Hardwick, has called on ministers to “get a grip” on the issue and act now to address the backlog.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Hardwick said levels of suicide, assault, and self-harm is “unacceptably high” among prisoners with IPP sentences.
Maurice’s son Danny was just 18 when a judge recommended he serve almost 16 months for two attempted robberies before he could apply for parole – but it took 11 years and nine months for him to be released. He got out on July 3 and was told to spend three months in a hostel in Leeds before being allowed to return to home soil in Newcastle.
Frustrated over not being with his family, without benefits and miles away from home, Danny threw a chair on the floor in the hostel which bounced and cracked a window.
It was on his 29th birthday, on July 18, and he was recalled to prison.
Builder Maurice, from Lemington, has welcomed Mr Hardwick’s comments but said: “I’ll believe it when I see it.
“I’m glad it’s been highlighted, it should be highlighted more because what’s happened to my son and those other 3,000 people is beyond imagining.”
The 45-year-old is fighting for his son’s release, but still fears for him when he gets out.
“He’s bearing up but they’ve created a monster – he’s totally institutionalised.
“I’m worried about the damage they’ve done to him, keeping him inside all this time for a relatively minor offence.
“I’m hoping he’ll get sent back to Newcastle because I can care for him – he’ll have people around him every day.
“Who’s going to be there for him in Leeds?”
Last year, we told how Danny’s time inside has been in high security prisons such as HMP Northumberland, HMP Moorlands in Doncaster, HMP Armley in Leeds, HMP Frankland in Durham and, lastly, in HMP Hull.
He had taken to self-harm to get him through dark days, but Danny’s family revealed in February 2016 the Parole Board said he could be moved to a category D open prison.
However, just weeks later, he was told the prison that had been chosen was changed and Danny tried to kill himself as his hopes were shattered.
His solicitor, Shirley Noble, said he was being kept inside as he “poses a risk to himself” and uses the self-harming mechanism to release the pain he suffers emotionally.
And his dad used his son’s attempted suicide to highlighted the IPP sentences, 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 when the term of their original sentence had expired.
The Ministry of Justice says it is working closely with the Parole Board to process the cases as quickly as possible.