Ministers must summon the courage to right an 'obvious injustice'

The very judges who handed out "unfair" indefinite prison sentences have joined The Independent's campaign to resentence thousands of offenders who are still trapped by a law that was abolished in 2012.

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Sir John Saunders, a former High Court judge, tells us that he would apologise to offenders he sentenced to imprisonment for public protection (IPP) terms. “I should say I’m really sorry this has happened; it’s extremely unfair,” he said.

“I didn’t want to be party to unfairness. I would feel very bad about it, I would apologise to them.”

The sentences, described as an “obvious injustice” by one former senior judge, were introduced by David Blunkett as home secretary in 2005 in an attempt to deal with a small number of offenders who might continue to be a danger to the public. Such prisoners were given no release date, were subject to stringent assessment before being let out, and were then liable indefinitely for recall to prison if they broke the conditions of their release.