2,400 remain jailed under abolished IPP sentences

Independent.co reports that about 2,400 people remain in overcrowded prisons serving indefinite sentences under the abolished imprisonment for public protection (IPP) regime, having originally been jailed for crimes such as theft. The IPP sentence was introduced by the last Labour government and intended by David Blunkett to be used only in a small number of exceptional cases.

Offenders must satisfy the Parole Board that they are no longer a danger and can be recalled at any time for breaching their licence. Critics say the law broke a fundamental principle of justice by imprisoning people for what they might do rather than for what they had done, and it was handed down far more frequently than its architects intended.

John Thomas, the former lord chief justice, wrote: "The IPP sentence is now accepted to have been wrong in principle by absolutely everyone. How, therefore, can we as a nation justly continue to imprison people under such a sentence?" He also warned: "Psychiatric evidence is clear...

Key Topics

Politics, Ipp Sentence, David Blunkett, Parole Board, John Thomas, Keir Starmer