The modern catch-22 at the heart of a burning injustice

The Independent has long campaigned for justice for the prisoners who are still serving the indefinite sentences that were abolished 14 years ago.

- 

Imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences were scrapped because they were an affront to the basic principles of justice and yet those offenders serving them at the time continued to do so.

There are still 2,400 of them, given no release date, imprisoned until they can satisfy the Parole Board that it is safe to release them, and faced with a return to prison if they break the often stringent conditions imposed on them.

Governments of both parties have refused demands by prisoners' families, retired judges including John Thomas, the former lord chief justice of England, and The Independent for IPP prisoners to be resentenced and treated in the same way as other offenders.

Their situation is bad enough, and the toll on their mental health is severe, but, for the 233 of them transferred to hospital for mental health treatment, a further injustice awaits. In a twist resembling Joseph Heller's