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ITV News
07-08-2025
- Politics
- ITV News
'Crushed by a flawed system': More than 2,000 prisoners being held under defunct UK law
IPP (Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection) sentences were supposed to have been banned 13 years ago. Now the stress of being left languishing in prison, has been recognised in court for the first time, ITV News West of England Report Sangita Lal explains I've been speaking to IPP prisoners for the last five years and they don't just feel trapped in a flawed system, they feel crushed by it. Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection were brought in in 2005 by the then Labour government to be handed to a prisoner deemed dangerous but whose crime didn't merit a life sentence. The whole point was to protect the public from someone who could cause harm. Prisoners were given minimum terms they had to serve but crucially - their detention was unlimited. This is an endless sentence. There is no release date. When the new sentence became law, judges had to use them. If they didn't they had to explain why. I've spoken to judges about how and why IPP sentences were so widely used for petty crimes, like stealing a bike or phone, and I have been told that it's because it was easier for a judge to use it than it was for them to explain why they weren't going to. In 2012 the law was abolished. By that time more than 8,000 people had been given an IPP sentence. Campaigners say there are still almost 2,500 stuck behind bars. The former Supreme Court Judge Justice Lord Brown called it "the greatest single stain on our criminal justice system". It's hard to comprehend how the UK justice system, which is built on criminals serving time and being released, is holding people in prison under a law that was abolished 23 years ago. One of the most difficult aspects of covering this story has been to see how much hope IPP prisoners had recently, when there was an inquiry by the Justice Select Committee, and how devasted they were at the lack of action by successive governments. In 2022, after a three-year-long inquiry, the Justice Select Committee called on the government to resentence all IPPs still in prison. The system was described as 'irredeemably flawed' which was causing inmates to self harm. In response the then Conservative government said it wasn't going to resentence IPPs, it was going to review the licensing conditions for those who are released. This was a significant blow for campaigners but they had another glimmer of hope when a Labour government returned, because they believed the party would want to right its wrong. Still though, nothing has changed for IPP prisoners. They're still stuck in prison and feel left behind. Campaigners and prisoners feel no one is listening and this doesn't just impact those held on IPP sentences, it has changed their families lives. In 2021, I interviewed the sister of Wayne Bell, when he was 17 years old he stole a bike in 2007. He's now detained under the mental health act, as he lives with schizophrenia. His sister Alana told me he believes he must have killed his dad, who's since died while he's been behind bar, because he can't understand why he's still in jail. Leroy Douglas stole a mobile phone in 2005, he's completed 35 courses in jail but is still there, desperate to get the chance to speak with the parole board and have his case reviewed. These are two of more than two thousand who feel they have no voice. A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "It is absolutely right that the IPP sentence was abolished and we have significantly improved support for these offenders, with greater access to rehabilitation and mental health support. 'By law, the Parole Board considers the case of each IPP prisoner every two years, judging whether they are safe for release. We consider this an important safeguard for the public's protection.'
ITV News
20-06-2025
- General
- ITV News
Air India Flight 171: Disaster in the Skies
Air India Flight 171: Disaster in the Skies - A week of reporting from ITV News correspondents around the world on the Air India Flight 171 plane crash - one of the deadliest aviation disasters in modern history. Narrated by Sangita Lal. More info
