Prison officers have been left in an “intolerable” position of dealing with frustrated and hopeless prisoners trapped on abolished indefinite jail terms that are an “embarrassment” to Britain, a union chief has warned.
Steve Gillan, general secretary of the Prison Officers’ Association, hit out at the government for leaving almost 2,500 prisoners languishing on “grossly unjust” imprisonment for public protection (IPP) jail terms, despite scrapping them 13 years ago.
“There are some people who are well over their tariffs who shouldn’t be in prison, quite frankly, because they are there for the most trivial crimes with no sign of release,” he told The Independent. “That just can’t be fair in a civilised society.”
His comments come as Napo, a union representing probation workers, called for the government to “finish the job” and address the injustice of those still serving the jail terms.
The open-ended punishments, which have been branded inhumane by the UN, were abolished in 2012, but not retrospectively, leaving thousands already sentenced incarcerated without a release date until they can convince the Parole Board they are safe to be released.
Victims of the scandal, whose tragic cases have been highlighted by The Independent, include: Leroy Douglas, who has served almost 20 years for robbing a mobile phone; Thomas White, 42, who set himself alight in his cell and has served 13 years for stealing a phone; and Abdullahi Suleman, 41, who is still inside 19 years after he was jailed for a laptop robbery.
Despite at least 94 IPP prisoners taking their own lives after losing hope of release, successive governments have refused calls from the justice select committee to resentence them.
The POA has no official position on the jail term. However, Mr Gillan warned that the government’s lack of action has left prison officers to manage IPP inmates who are frustrated, hopeless or struggling with their mental health inside overcrowded prisons.
“If you don’t give people hope, they just rebel against the system,” Mr Gillan said. “It’s my members who are on the receiving end of that.”
The United Nations is currently investigating whether Britain is breaching human rights law by arbitrarily detaining IPP prisoners after campaigners launched a landmark legal complaint on behalf of five men who have served a combined total of 84 years. The government is due to publish a response to their complaint next month.
Mr Gillan added: “I think it’s an embarrassment to be honest with you because by now, since the legislation in 2012 became defunct, I would have thought in the intervening years this would have been dealt with and not just ignored.
“It has forced families to appeal to the UN over incarceration in Britain. We are better than that.”
He called for ministers to find a way to address the scandal, which both protects the public and is “fair and just to the individuals serving these sentences”.
Separate proposals calling for remaining IPP prisoners to be given a release date within two years, put forward by the Howard League for Penal Reform, are also in front of ministers.
Mr Gillan’s concerns are shared by the union representing probation officers. Speaking at a meeting in parliament organised by campaign group IPP Committee in Action on Wednesday, Ranjit Singh, assistant general secretary of Napo, said the jail terms are “institutionalised harm”.
Prisons minister Lord James Timpson was among those listening at the meeting, along with Richard Ratcliffe, whose wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is backing the calls for the government to help those trapped on the sentence.
The calls follow a protest outside the Houses of Parliament, led by family members and former IPP prisoners.
“If IPP is an unfair sentence and that has been recognised [when it was abolished], then it needs to be addressed for those that are still serving it,” Mr Singh later told The Independent.
“It’s an injustice that needs to be corrected. These individuals who are still languishing in prison on IPP are being harmed because they are being made unwell.”
Napo is backing proposals for remaining IPP prisoners to be resentenced on a case-by-case basis and for a review of the Parole Board’s release test.
Even once IPP prisoners are finally freed by the Parole Board, many find themselves in a vicious cycle of recall to prison, which sees them hauled back to prison for minor infractions of strict licence conditions.
Mr Singh added: “Nobody wants to make those recalls, we want to see people succeed in the community.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “It is right that IPP sentences were abolished, but public safety must come first.
“Every IPP prisoner is entitled to a parole review at least every two years – and no one is kept in prison unless the independent Parole Board judges they still pose a serious risk.”
