An investigation by the Guardian has revealed that some prisoners given indeterminate sentences before 2008 are still behind bars today.
Data from the Ministry of Justice shows that nearly 3,000 prisoners are still in prison after being given controversial Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences.
Five of these inmates serving IPP sentences were given a tariff (a minimum time of imprisonment) of less than six months. A further 15 prisoners were given tariffs of between six months and a year.
These prisoners who may have been released after a few months have now been behind bars for at least 16 years without release.
IPP sentences were introduced in 2005 and were designed to detain offenders who posed a significant risk of causing serious harm to the public. Under these sentences, prisoners can be detained indefinitely.
These controversial sentences were abolished in 2012 after the European Court of Human Rights declared it violated the right to liberty and security. However, the abolition did not apply to existing prisoners who were already serving those sentences at the time. This has resulted in prisoners serving sentences far longer than their original tariff, including Ronnie Sinclair, who served 16 years in jail on a three-year IPP tariff for stealing a flower pot at the age of 17.
According to the IPP Committee, about 90 IPP prisoners have taken their own life when serving their sentence or on licence.
Earlier this year, a group of campaigners and academics sent the government a joint letter calling for IPP reform and the creation of an expert committee to advise on the practicalities of a resentencing exercise.
In September 2024, the Secretary of State for Justice Shabana Mahmood announced that she wanted to make ‘progress towards a safe and sustainable release’ for IPP prisoners but ‘not in a way that impacts public protection’.
Later this week, the prison minister, James Timpson, is expected to announce that more than 1,000 IPP prisoners on probation will have their licences terminated.