A seventh case of a man serving a controversial indeterminate prison sentence has been sent to the Court of Appeal by the miscarriages of justice watchdog this week.

Daniel Grace was given an indeterminate detention for public protection (DPP) with a minimum term of three years in 2010, but remains in prison today. He was 18 at the time of his conviction for intent to cause grievous bodily harm and false imprisonment.

Due to his age Mr Grace should have been sentenced to imprisonment for public protection (IPP), but this has never been formally corrected. He remains subject to his sentence and is still in custody. Grace’s case is one of hundreds currently being looked at by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) as many may have been wrongly handed down, meaning people like Mr Grace may have spent many years in prison more than they should have. If Daniel Grace’s sentence is substituted for one with a fixed tariff by appeal judges, its likely he will have already served much more than this and will be able to leave prison immediately.

Both types of sentences were abolished in 2012, but current IPP and DPP prisoners have not been freed from the terms imposed on them before the law was changed.

Legal commentator and barrister Joshua Rozenberg wrote this week that prisoners ‘might reasonably ask why the CCRC didn’t begin reviewing individual cases years ago’. The government has rejected the idea of releasing all IPP offenders at once because some are still regarded as dangerous.

A spokesperson from the CCRC responded to Rozenberg saying: ‘We would like to make clear that the CCRC has been reviewing IPP and DPP cases since at least 2008 using several approaches, but with relatively few successful referrals until recently.’

The body said the first ‘real shift’ came when the Court of Appeal indicated some sentencing judges may not have given ‘sufficient weight to youth and immaturity’ before imposing an indeterminate sentence.

They continued: ‘The CCRC has focused on such cases, achieving recent successes and identifying further potential referrals. We now await the court’s reserved judgment to understand whether its reasoning will have broader application, and will also continue to review other IPP cases, individually, on other bases.’

On 23 April, six other IPP sentences were overturned by the Court of Appeal. Of the six, three – Benjamin Hibbert, Stuart O’Neill and Jay Davis – were all convicted as young men more than 15 years ago and have remained in custody since then, despite none having been given a tariff of more than three and a half years. The court also quashed the sentences of Jerry Tolbert, Jordan Webster and Dawayne McLaren.

CCRC Chair Dame Vera Baird KC said yesterday: ‘We welcome the Court of Appeal’s decision last month to quash six IPP and DPP sentences, three of them as a result of CCRC referrals. We look forward to the Court’s reserved judgment for further clarity and guidance in approaching these cases.’ She also urged others in similar situations in prisons across the country who have already lost one appeal to contact the CCRC to have their case reviewed.