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The prime minister has vowed to resolve the “long-running injustice” of indefinite jail terms as part of measures to ease prison overcrowding and stop PC Andrew Harper’s killers from being freed early.
Andy Burnham said he is “increasingly confident” that he can find a way to free up prison cells, which will allow him to curb the early release of some offenders such as the police officer’s killers.
Options being considered include the release of “lower risk” prisoners serving Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) jail terms, he said on Tuesday. The comments offer fresh hope for prisoners trapped on the open-ended sentences which were outlawed in 2012.
The Independent has long campaigned for the unjust jail terms – which have left thousands languishing without hope of release – to be reviewed.
Burnham said IPP sentences were a ‘long-running injustice’ (PA Wire)
In a statement issued on Facebook, he said he has asked justice secretary Alex Norris to fast-track a plan to create more headroom in the prison estate.
The plan will be based “on a range of options”, Mr Burnham said, including “increasing the rate of removal of foreign national offenders from the prison estate to their country of origin; finding an early resolution to the long-running injustice of IPP sentences, which could allow for the release of lower-risk prisoners; and making greater use of the entire prison estate including using the female estate for male offenders”.
He continued: “I am increasingly confident that a more focused approach along these lines will allow us to reduce the number of people released early and, in the case of the most serious offenders like those convicted of the killing of PC Harper, prevent their early release altogether.”
The development comes as the government faces legal action over the jail terms after the United Nations found Britain is unlawfully detaining a number of over-tariff IPP prisoners in a scathing legal opinion issued last month.
PC Andrew Harper was killed while on duty in 2019 (Thames Valley Police)
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called for Britain to urgently act in relation to five men handed the jail terms, warning their imprisonment long beyond their original tariff amounts to arbitrary detention under international human rights law and they are entitled to compensation.
Separately, the UN special rapporteur on torture has accused the government of perpetuating human rights abuses and warned the jail term may amount to psychological torture.
Lawyers yesterday sent the justice secretary a letter before action as they prepare to submit a rare habeas corpus legal challenge to the High Court, which will force the government to justify the prisoners’ continued incarceration to senior judges.
Human rights lawyer Karen Todner said UN’s findings have rendered the IPP jail term “indefensible”, adding: “It’s hugely significant and very damning for the UK government to receive such a condemnation of our justice system.”
The open-ended punishments were scrapped in 2012, but not retrospectively, leaving thousands languishing in prison without a release date for years beyond their tariff, including some for minor crimes. Once released, many find themselves trapped in a cycle of indefinite recall for minor breaches of strict licence conditions.
The architect of the flawed sentence, Lord David Blunkett, has since admitted that ushering in the draconian punishments under Tony Blair’s Labour government is his “biggest regret”.
In 2022, the cross-party justice committee inquiry found the sentences were “irredeemably flawed” and called for all IPP prisoners to be resentenced. Despite 96 people taking their own lives in custody after losing hope of release, successive governments have so far refused.
Clockwise from top: Wayne Williams, Leroy Douglas, Josh Mcrae, Shaun Lloyd and Abdullahi Suleman (Supplied)
Four of the five cases condemned by the UN are still incarcerated, including Leroy Douglas, who has served almost 20 years without release for street robbery of a mobile phone; Abdullahi Suleman, who is still in custody 20 years after he was handed an IPP for a laptop robbery; Wayne Williams, who has spent more than 19 years in prison without release for a 23-month jail term for attempting to injure a police officer in a fight; and Shaun Lloyd, 39, who was recently hauled back to prison for the fifth time, having served more than 12 years for two street robberies.
Sadly, Joshua Mcrae, died in prison aged 34, having served more than 16 years for a four-year tariff for grievous bodily harm.
They are among almost 2,300 people still in prison on the controversial jail terms.
This week the chair of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, Dame Vera Baird, joined calls for the government to take “wholesale” action to address the scandal. Judges have recently quashed a string of indefinite sentences handed to children and young men and the CCRC is reviewing hundreds more.
Following Mr Burnham’s comments, Dame Vera, who is also a former victims’ commissioner, said debate around the early release scheme had brought an urgency to solving the problem.
“We are harming a lot of people with a leftover that international human rights institutions have condemned as torture,” she told The Independent.
“The CCRC is working as fast as possible to send cases to the Court of Appeal following some recent hopeful precedents from them, but, as multiple agencies have said, the way to grip the issue is to embark on a re-sentencing exercise. I imagine the complexities of working that through have played a role in deterring ministers.
“However, given the problems in the early release scheme, there are now two reasons to tackle IPP’s, since many people are likely to be freed, creating much needed space in the prison system.”
Labour peer Shami Chakrabarti, the former director of Liberty, added: “It is extremely positive to see a prime minister personally trying to grip our long-term prison crisis. The scandal of IPP prisoners in particular- still taking up prison places long after they should have been released based on the seriousness of their offending, is one that should be urgently ended.”
More follows on the breaking news story…