The prime minister has vowed to resolve the “long-running injustice” of indefinite jail terms in a major breakthrough for thousands of prisoners jailed without hope.
Andy Burnham has said he could free some prisoners trapped on discredited Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) jail terms among possible measures to ease prison overcrowding and stop PC Andrew Harper’s killers from being freed early.
Offering a glimmer of hope to prisoners and their families, he said options being considered could include the release of “lower risk” prisoners serving IPP jail terms.
The Independent has long campaigned for the unjust jail terms - which have left thousands languishing without a release date - to be reviewed.
In a statement issued on Facebook, Mr Burnham said he has asked justice secretary Alex Norris to fast-track a plan to create more headroom in the prison estate so he can curb early releases.
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.”
Mr Norris said the government is “working through every serious option to create more capacity without tipping prisons into collapse”.
PC Harper died when he got caught in a strap attached to the back of a car and was dragged down a country road as his teenage killers fled the scene of a quad bike theft in Sulhamstead, Berkshire, in 2019. News two of them are due to be released halfway through their 13-year manslaughter sentences next year was met with a public backlash.
The prime minister’s comments come as the government faces legal action over the jail terms after the United Nations found Britain is unlawfully detaining some over-tariff IPP prisoners.
In a scathing legal opinion issued last month, 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 does not comply with 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, a 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.
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 created 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.”
Lord Tony Woodley, who previously tabled a bill to resentence IPP prisoners, called for “decisive action”.
“It would be unforgivable to raise the hopes of IPP prisoners and their families, only to dash them once again because of political expediency or resistance from the same ministry officials who have presided over this scandal for years,” he told The Independent.
“The House of Commons Justice Committee and the United Nations special rapporteurs all agree that resentencing is the only fair way to end this miscarriage of justice.
“Alternatively, a reconsideration exercise led by judges, along the lines suggested in the Lords earlier this year, would be another way to prioritise the safe release of hundreds of people serving prison sentences that are hugely disproportionate to the crime committed.”
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.”
Former justice secretary David Lidington said it is an “appalling injustice” which ought to be remedied, but warned it may take time to resolve and require new legislation.
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