‘Imprisonment for Public Protection’ holds prisoners until they are considered safe to release into society. But who judges what that means? And what about the safety of the prisoners facing unending imprisonment?
What is the purpose of prison? Some of the main answers are: punishment, rehabilitation or for the protection of the public. To support that final reason the Criminal Justice Act 2003 introduced the option to impose an “Imprisonment for Public Protection” (IPP) tariff. This meant that prisoners would not be released after their original sentence unless the Parole Board judged that they are no longer a risk to society. Even when released these offenders under an IPP are on indefinite licence, which means they can be re-imprisoned at any time if they “pose a threat to the public”. They are only able to apply for this to be lifted ten years after release.
This generated criticism for a couple of main reasons. A) judging if someone is a threat to the public is very arbitrary and would always be subject to bias. B) it infringes on the human rights of an individual to be incarcerated longer than their original sentence. C) the mental toll it takes not knowing when you would be free from the IPP.
The End of Imprisonment for Public Protection?
Officially the IPPs were abolished in 2012 after they were judged to be inconsistent, and prisons often lacked the facilities to accurately judge if a prisoner was a danger to society. However, while no new IPPs were issued after 2012 any existing IPPs remained in place, with no indication of when they would end.
Between 2005 and 2012 8711 IPPs were imposed of which 2852 are still in place and of those 1498 have already served their original sentence. This is the most important aspect to consider right now, that despite the IPP’s being abolished, there are many prisoners still suffering. Ninety people under an IPP have committed suicide so far and over half of those under an IPP self-harm. The weight of not knowing when you would ever be free must be crushing. As with many things it’s the not knowing that makes it worse.
Hope For an Actual End
To address these issues the Victims and Prisoners Bill is currently passing through parliament and is close to being finalised. Part of the bill would end sentences for around 1800 prisoners with a further 800 being eligible for parole from March 2025. The bill would reduce the time to apply for the IPP to be lifted to three years but importantly, would not end them full stop.
IPP critic organisations such as IPP Committee In Action argue that this is not enough and that all remaining IPP’s should be ended and the prisoners resentenced. If the revised sentence has already been served, they should be released immediately. So far, the government has shown no indication that they would be willing to follow this course of action.
What Do The Critics Say?
Tellingly, the main instigator of the IPP system, David Blunkett, has since admitted “I got it wrong”. Criticisms have been levelled at the government for refusing to consider resentencing for IPPs.
“We are gravely disappointed that no reforms are proposed for people trapped in prison on IPP – some as many as 18 years over tariff. Nobody should do 18 years longer than a judge deemed fair, in a system that time and again has proven itself unable to meet their needs.”
UNGRIPP, pressure group
Given that keeping these IPP prisoners locked up is costing around £125 million a year you’d have thought the government would want to be more proactive in releasing the prisoners that have already served their sentence.
Meeting the needs of prisoners post release is an ongoing concern. Lack of community support for individuals that feel abhorred or excluded from society leads many to fall into old patterns and reoffend. Unfortunately, the terms of an IPP are extremely arbitrary and those released can be recalled for any number of things that a normal parole would not consider. Community support is a somewhat separate issue but just to touch on it here, prisoners need more support once they are released if they are ever to be able to successfully reintegrate into society.
Final Thought
The initial idea of an Imprisonment for Public Protection was for public protection, to keep dangerous individuals away from the public until they were safe. This supports the ideas of rehabilitation and public protection as the purpose of prison. However, in reality, all it has done is keep people in prison far far beyond their sentence. Usually for arbitrary reasons decided by unqualified staff who would almost certainly be biased.
The reality of the IPP boils down to punishment, unending and crushing. Essentially in many ways, a life sentence in all but name. Given that many of the original crimes were for arguably smaller offences (20% were robbery) it is highly unethical to keep prisoners locked up for this length of time. As some people only care about money lets point out that every day someone is in prison that is costing the country money that could be spent on the NHS or welfare.
Were IPPs ever a good idea? Should the Victims and Prisoners Bill abolish them completely? You be the judge.
This article was written by one of Chamber’s features writers – Joshua Coyle. To read more analysis on issues concerning crime and justice, visit Chamber’s website here.