More ambition needed on IPP reform, new report
A compassionate release programme, reparations and resentencing are among proposals in a new five-point plan from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies to resolve the IPP crisis.
The five-point plan comes in a new report – How to resolve the IPP crisis for good – by our Research Director, Dr Roger Grimshaw, which is out today. If implemented, that five-point plan could resolve the IPP crisis once and for all:
- Release the most distressed prisoners on compassionate grounds.
- Launch a recovery and reparations programme for IPP prisoners.
- Ease restrictions for over-tariff IPP prisoners still in custody.
- Commit to review all forms of preventive detention.
- Complete a resentencing exercise for all those under an IPP as soon as possible.
While we welcome the concessions the government has made over recent months, the result of sustained pressure from campaigners and the House of Commons Justice Committee among others, the government’s piecemeal and unambitious approach is not working. Indeed, the number of prisoners under the IPP sentence has barely changed in the last twelve months, despite the misnamed and underpowered ‘Action Plan’, announced in April 2023.
In December 2022 there were 2,892 prisoners under the IPP sentence, a number that had fallen by a mere 40 to 2,852 by December 2023. At this rate of ‘progress’, it could be many years before this scandalous injustice is finally resolved, once and for all.
Given this lack of progress, How to resolve the IPP crisis for good argues that a more ambitious approach is urgently needed, including a compassionate release scheme, the launch of a recovery and reparations programme for IPP prisoners, and the swift implementation of a resentencing exercise.
We are also supporting efforts to amend the Victims and Prisoners Bill, currently going through the House of Lords, including amendments to force the government’s hand on the resentencing of those under the IPP sentence.
One of these amendments, being proposed by Earl Attlee, grandson of Labour’s great post-war prime minister, Clement Attlee, seeks to legislate for the resentencing exercise while also addressing concerns about the state of the probation service.
Earlier this week, our Director, Richard Garside, wrote for the Morning Star, explaining the thinking behind Earl Attlee’s amendment.
As things stand, the IPP-related amendments are due to be debated by the House of Lords on Tuesday, 12 March, though this may change.