eBulletin, 28 July 2023
Our latest eBulletin, sent out to those on our mailing list on Friday, 28 July. Sign-up for our free eBulletins here.
At the beginning of July I was honoured to attend a powerful exhibition in parliament on the appalling Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence.
The exhibition, organised by UNGRIPP (United Group for the Reform of IPP), told the stories of IPP prisoners, their families and friends. It was a stark reminder of just how corrosive this terrible sentence, passed at the height of the former Labour government’s ‘tough on crime’ obsession, has become to a sense of justice and the rule of law.
The IPP sentence is specific to the England and Wales criminal justice jurisdiction. Similar sentences also operate in Scotland (the Order of Lifelong Restriction sentence, or OLR) and in Northern Ireland (the Indeterminate Custodial Sentence, or ICS).
A new briefing by us this week – A death row of sorts – shows that similar problems and injustices for prisoners and their families arise from these sentences, whether in Northern Ireland, Scotland, England or Wales. The title of the briefing, for instance, is taken from a comment made by a prisoner in Scotland.
The cumulative effect of these life sentence-like prison sentences – the disappointment and despair, the sense of hopelessness that comes from not knowing when one’s sentence will end, or if it will end – is tortuous for prisoners and their families. We are encouraging as many of our supporters as possible to write to their MPs, asking them to back the attempt by Sir Bob Neill MP to get parliament to bring an end to the IPP once and for all.
We should not, however, forget that the IPP sentence is, at least, no longer available to the courts in England and Wales, since its partial abolition in 2012. The OLR and ICS sentences remain available, and are used, in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
So there remains much to do, across the United Kingdom, to bring an end to these tortuous, life sentence-like sentences.
Richard Garside
Director
Longer reads
"Last chance saloon": Will the legacy of Dame Casey's damning review into the internal culture of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) make any difference? It looks, according to Ben Bradford, like the MPS cannot go on in the wake of Macpherson and Casey, to promise reform and continue to be seen to fail. Take a look at two commentaries we recently published in response to the Baroness Casey Review.
Jennifer Fleetwood and John Lea have outlined their vision of the range of services who can and should be enabled to address complex social problems. By divesting in policing, we can invest in communities and agencies who best know how to address their complex social challenges. Police reform should take seriously that they are just one agency amongst many, and others are often more appropriate to deal with social crises.
Next, Ben Bradford highlights that the problems facing British policing are by no means unique and looks at international attempts at policing reform. The question is, can effective police reform happen without wider state action in tandem, to ensure meaningful change? And is our government interested in pursuing police reform?
Do you have thoughts on the issue of police reform and/or a response to the Casey Review? Get in touch with a pitch and we'll get back to you.
The best is yet to come: Mike Guilfoyle's blog this month recalls his probationary supervision of 'Candice' (not real name), whose hopes of escaping poverty and going to university were momentarily scuppered by delayed sentencing. Yet, Mike goes on to describe how a prison stint, family estrangement and accusations of having been disruptive in prison, didn't stand in Candice's way in her ambition to continue her education.
One helluva gamble: Lankelly Chase Foundation have made the decision to close doors, citing the need to shift the unjust power structures they and other philanthropic institutions percieve themselves to perpetuate, despite hoping to achieve otherwise. Read Richard Garside's piece, originally published in Third Sector magazine, on the problem of being part of a system you're trying to change, and why he considers the decision to close the foundation a noble but risky gamble.
Latest news
As concerns mount about the welfare of children in prisons, we were one of the signatories of a letter coordinated by the Alliance for Youth Justice, to the prisons minister, Damian Hinds. We and other signatories highlighted the "parlous and harmful" condition of prisons for children and young people and encouraged others to write to the responsible minister.
Indeterminate prison sentences
Our latest report by Roger Grimshaw was published earlier this week, outlining the iterations of indeterminate prison sentences extant across Northern Ireland, Scotland and England and Wales. Read the full briefing, A death row of sorts here.
We would encourage everybody to write to your MP to support Sir Robert Neill's tabled amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill to permit resentencing exercises in relation to those still subject to the imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence.
Richard appeared on the latest episode of Trapped: The IPP Prisoner Scandal to discuss the catch-22 prisoners on IPP sentences find themselves trapped in, particularly as they approach their parole review.
Events
We have our first 'Last month in criminal justice' event in the diary and open for registration. Hosted by Richard Garside, he will be joined by Dr Hannah Quirk (Kings College London) and other speakers to be announced soon.
Sign up here and keep an eye out for upcoming announcements on some exciting new developments and speakers for 'Last month in criminal justice'.
News from our partners
In early July, our friends at UNGRIPP (United Group for Reform of IPP) held a week-long exhibition in parliament on the Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence. This included a special event on the early evening of Wednesday, 5 July, addressed by, among others, Sir Bob Neill MP, chair of the House of Commons Justice Committee, Labour peer Baroness Chakrabarti, and criminal justice consultant (and former IPP prisoner) Andrew Morris.
Inside Time newspaper wrote up the exhibition here. You can also check out Andy Aitchison’s pictures of the launch event.
See you in a while
There will be no e-Bulletin in August whilst many of the staff at the Centre take a summer break. We will be back in September with lots of news and higlights of our latest work.
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