Revealed: the staggering bill for 'inhumane' prison terms

Incarcerating prisoners serving abolished indefinite jail terms that have been described as psychological torture” cost British taxpayers 145m last year, The Independent can reveal.

- AMY-CLARE MARTIN

Analysis of official data lays bare the staggering cost of detaining more than 2,600 inmates still trapped on imprisonment for public protection (IPP) jail terms, which have left prisoners languishing for decades – including for minor crimes.

This is on top of an estimated £1.6bn spent keeping IPP prisoners behind bars in the first 10 financial years since the cruel jail term was scrapped due to human rights concerns.

Experts have said it is “fundamentally wrong” and “farcical” that the government is continuing to spend hundreds of millions each year locking up prisoners on a sentence branded “inhumane” by the UN, while resisting calls to resentence them.

Shocking cases highlighted by The Independent include Leroy Douglas, who has served almost 20 years for stealing a mobile phone; James Lawrence, 38, who is still in prison 18 years after he was handed an eight-month jail term; and Abdullahi Suleman, 41, who is still inside 19 years after he was jailed for a laptop robbery. Yusuf Ali was left emaciated after spending 61 days on hunger strike over his IPP jail term.

At an average cost of £53,801 per prisoner, according to Ministry of Justice figures published this month, the state forked out an estimated £145,773,810 keeping these offenders in prison in 2024, while thousands of others were released after serving just 40 per cent of their jail term to ease overcrowding.