More than 70 campaigners, trade unionists, activists, lawyers and civil society representatives are calling today for urgent action on IPP reform.
The letter argues that swift and decisive action to resolve the IPP (Imprisonment for Public Protection) scandal once and for all is both the right thing to do and would help the government resolve the immediate population pressures facing the prison system.
Among the signatories to the joint letter:
- UNGRIPP – United Group for Reform of IPP, IPP Committee in Action and JENGbA
- The Howard League for Penal Reform, Prison Reform Trust and the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies
- Prison Officers’ Association and Napo
- Amnesty, Inquest and Justice
- Those serving an IPP sentence
- A number of academics, lawyers and experts in their field
Given the urgency of the situation, the letter asks that the Labour Government undertakes to do the following, within the first 100 days of the new Parliament:
- Bring all the IPP-related provisions in the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 into force.
- Publish the first annual report on IPP, which was due to be published by the end of March 2024.
- Make a ministerial statement to Parliament, setting out the new Government’s plans and timetable to address all the outstanding challenges affecting those under an IPP sentence.
- Commit to set up an expert committee, in line with the recommendation of the former Justice Select Committee, to advise on the practicalities of a resentencing exercise, with the aim of beginning the exercise within 18 months
The letter also highlights the devastating impact the IPP sentence has had. Already this year, three coroners have linked the IPP sentences to the tragic suicides of prisoners. Only last month, one IPP prisoner set himself alight in his cell; another began a second hunger strike.
Speaking today, our director Richard Garside, signatory to the letter, said:
In his first press conference as Prime Minister, last Saturday, Sir Keir Starmer described prisons as “broken”.
A practical first step in fixing the broken prison system would be for the government do what it promised to do in opposition: to “work at pace” to resolve the scandal of the IPP sentence.
As well as freeing up much needed prison capacity it would finally draw a line under a dreadful sentence that has been a stain on our justice system for far too long.
