The Reality of IPP Prisoners – Madi Levy
“So long as I’m under IPP I have no life, no freedom, no future. I fear IPP will force me to commit suicide. I have lost all trust and hope in this justice system.”
What are IPPs?
An IPP is an Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence that was introduced in April 2005 and given until 2012. IPP sentences were given to prolific offenders and acted as an indeterminate sentence. This means that the individual is given a minimum time ‘tariff’ on their prison sentence, and has to apply to be released on parole when this time is up. The parole board decides whether to release the individual on the basis of behaviour in the prison and risk to the public. An IPP prisoner is only released by the parole board when they are satisfied that the individual no longer poses a risk of harm to the public. If parole is denied the individual will have to wait another year before applying again. Once released, an individual with an IPP sentence is on licence for a minimum of 10 years. When in the community IPP prisoners have to follow conditions set on their licence, if these conditions are not met the individual can be recalled back to prison. Since they can be recalled for breaking licence conditions, IPP prisoners often receive recalls for poor behaviour which falls short of actual illegal activity. The removal of a licence is also at the discretion of a parole board, meaning that released IPP prisoners may face being recalled to prison for the rest of their lives. Once recalled, the indeterminate sentence reinstates and the prisoner will have to follow the same protocol of applying for parole yearly. Having the termination for a licence accepted is the only way for an IPP sentence to be truly brought to an end. IPP sentences were abolished in 2012 due to overuse, and inconsistencies in the way the sentence was used by judges. Despite the option of an IPP sentence being removed for judges the change was not applied retrospectively. This left those who were given an IPP sentence prior to its eradication still have to carry out their full sentences.
The effects on IPP prisoners
IPP prisoners are essentially given an indeterminate sentence with thousands having not been ever released from prison despite outstaying their tariff and many thousands more returning to prison on recall despite not committing further offences. The psychological effects of having an indefinite sentences are found to be vast with higher levels of mental health issues, self-harm, and even 74 suicides within the IPP population. For example, the Prison Reform Trust reported that for every 1,000 prisoners serving an IPP sentence, there were 550 incidents of self-harm in comparison to 324 incidents for those serving a determinate sentence of the same population size. Both the IPP prisoners and their families experience feelings of hopelessness due to the uncertainties which can be associated to a decline in the prisoners behaviour further diminishing chances of release, and as a result re-enforcing the feelings of desperation.
Despite the original plans to reform IPP prisoners and support them with their progression to being released back into the community once ‘safe’. It seems as if little has actually been executed within prisons to achieve this. As aforementioned, the IPP prison population is disproportionately affected by complex mental health conditions, not only will long indefinite stints in prison most likely exacerbate these mental health conditions, but access to support for these mental health conditions within prison is extremely limited. Following this, many IPP prisoners are expected to complete courses to enable them to become ‘safer’ for the public. However access to these courses are exceedingly low with long waiting lists and a lack of staff to conduct them. This means that IPP prisoners are unable to meet parole expectations of accessing support to stop them offending from no fault of their own causing IPP prisoners to feel helpless and neglected by a system which is put in place to aid them to ‘rehabilitate and reintegrate’ back into society.
An inquiry led by the House of Commons Justice Committee reported that the psychological harm on IPP prisoners was evidenced by submissions from a variety of individuals including prisoners themselves, family members and professionals with several referring to a decline in mental health following an IPP sentence. One psychologist described IPP prisoners to be clinically alike an individual who has been wrongfully convicted.
A further psychological impact of those incarcerated under IPP sentences are the impact of institutionalisation from lengthy stretches of time in prison. Institutionalisation is the process by which prisoners’ mentalities tend to adapt to meet the exceptional demands of incarcerated life. Institutionalisation can have an impact on a variety of things of the prisoners life such as a change of habits, thought processes, feelings and behaviours. These adaptations to an individual’s way of functioning can become more ingrained the longer an individual is in an institutional environment such as prison. Due to the radical differences between prison and the community ex-prisoners often find this adjustment tricky. This often dysfunctional period of post-release can be extremely overwhelming to individuals who are unable to incorporate the ‘norms’ of prison into everyday life. This can result in prisoners feeling most comfortable in prison hence, may purposefully violate licence conditions or commit further offences in order to be recalled.
What now?
IPP sentences have been described by Lord Brown, a former Supreme Court judge as “the greatest single stain on our criminal justice system”. As of December 2022 over 3000 individuals are still imprisoned under sentences said to be “fundamentally unjust” and “unlawful” by the European Court of Human Rights with around 1700 of them having never been released. The Justice Committee as well as other key politicians such as Dominic Raab have been calling for those still serving IPP sentences in prison to be released and retried. They argue that the lengths of time IPP prisoners have been in prison over their tariff may be an infringement on their right to liberty. It is undeniable that the effects of IPP sentences on its prisoners are vast and enduring. With the abolishment of the sentence, the mistake of the IPP sentence in the first place was admitted. In order to restore faith and justice in our criminal justice system, IPP prisoners need to be released and resentenced to mirror the severity of the offence that was committed. These offenders also should receive extra support from the criminal justice system upon their imminent release to reintegrate into society effectively, as well as being provided with the correct support to combat the effects of the IPP sentence on their mental health and its resulting institutionalisation.