Prisoners stuck behind bars damaged by 'failure of state'

Former justice secretary urges his successor to look at fresh proposals to end the scandal of IPP indefinite jail sentences

- AMY-CLARE MARTIN CRIME CORRESPONDENT

The scandal of “totalitarian” indefinite jail terms has left prisoners profoundly damaged by the “state’s failure” to rehabilitate them, a former Tory justice secretary has warned.

Alex Chalk KC said Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) jail terms are “overbearing” and “unfair”, as he urged his successor Shabana Mahmood to look carefully at fresh proposals to end the historic wrong.

In a candid interview after leaving government a year ago, he described the abolished jail terms as a “state overreach”, which have left thousands languishing in prison for up to 22 times longer than their original tariff.

He told The Independent and the podcast Trapped: The IPP Scandal: “If you take the time to explain to people how the state has got things wrong and that this is a state overreach, and that ultimately it has acted in a way which is overbearing, unfair and almost totalitarian, then I think that offends against most British people’s sense of justice.”

More than 2,500 inmates are still trapped under the outlawed jail terms, which have been described by the UN as “psychological torture”. They were abolished in 2012, but not retrospectively, leaving those already jailed incarcerated indefinitely.

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.