Concern rises over prisoners still serving IPP sentences
THE imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence John Worboys is serving has always been controversial but concerns about its use have gathered pace over the past five years.
Introduced in 2005, the IPP was designed to be used for high-risk offenders whose crimes did not allow the criminal justice system to lock them up for life, despite their severe nature.
Most of those original sentences were for violent or sexual crimes, but over time their use ballooned.
Ministers have voiced concern about how widely they were being used.
An overhaul in 2008 meant the conditions for sentencing someone under an IPP were tightened, but the number of prisoners languishing in Britain’s jails under the orders remained high.
Some prisoners were handed very short minimum jail terms – one was just 28 days – while others, such as Worboys, had to serve years before being considered for parole.
IPP prisoners are meant to be given training courses and undergo treatment to prove they are ready for release, but as the system struggles to cope with the number of inmates, many jails fail to offer the right training.
This has led to some inmates being held for many years despite committing only minor offences.
In one example, a man detained indefinitely after he set fire to his prison bed while serving a sentence for actual bodily harm against his father, spent 11 years in jail after being handed a minimum term of just 10 months.
James Ward, whose release was announced late last year, has a low IQ, mental health problems and selfharmed while behind bars.
His family said his long sentence with no release date left him with “no hope”.
According to a Howard League for Prison Reform report, carried out before the sentences were abolished at the request of an EU court in 2012, this led to loss of morale among prison staff and frustration among prisoners who did not have a release date.
However, the decision to abolish the sentences was not applied retrospectively to more than 6,000 IPP prisoners behind bars at that time. There are still more than 3,000 IPP inmates in custody – with more than four in five now beyond the expiry date of their original tariff.
The Parole Board has prioritised IPP prisoner progress, and the number released has “risen significantly”.