Prisoners on indefinite jail terms denied early release

Excluding prisoners trapped under abolished indefinite jail terms from new measures to free up hundreds of desperately needed prison cells has been branded “morally wrong” and a “missed opportunity”.

- AMY-CLARE MARTIN

Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, this week announced emergency measures to automatically release criminals recalled for breaching their licence conditions after 28 days in a bid to prevent prisons reaching “zero capacity” in a matter of months.

But those serving “inhumane” Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) jail terms – which have left thousands trapped in prison for years longer than their original term or caught in a recall merry-go-round – will not be eligible for the recall release scheme.

A Labour peer has blasted the exclusion as a “scandal on top of a scandal” as campaigners warn the move could lead to more suicides and self-harm among IPP prisoners, after 94 have already taken their lives in custody.

The controversial open-ended jail terms were introduced in a bid to be tough on crime in 2005. They were scrapped in 2012 due to human rights concerns, but not retrospectively, leaving those already jailed trapped until they can prove they are safe for release.

They are then subject to strict licence conditions which can see them hauled back to prison indefinitely for minor breaches, such as missing a curfew. More than 1,500 of the 2,544 prisoners languishing on the jail term are inside on recall.

Seven in 10 of those – more than 1,000 prisoners – have committed no further crime but will be held indefinitely until the Parole Board agrees to their re-release, which takes an average of 26 months.

“This is not only inhumane and unjust, it's morally wrong and a waste of taxpayers’ money,” a spokesperson for United Group for Reform of IPP told