Target: LASPO, The House ofLords, The Government, Ken Clarke, The

#2: Katherine Gleeson - IPP

The High Court has rightly held that it is illegal to detain  people
until they can prove that they are safe but yet deny them the  means to
do so.

The only wonder is that it took a court  judgment to
demonstrate to ministers the fault in their Alice in  Wonderland logic.
It is a life sentence in all but name. The only real  difference is that
it can be given for far less serious offences. The  Prison Reform Trust
has come across people given tariffs for their  sentence of just 18
weeks. The tariff, as in the life sentence, is the  minimum time that
must be served. It represents the retribution or  punishment for the
offence. But even after the tariff, the person  remains in prison until
they have done the courses necessary to  demonstrate they are ready for
release. But because of grotesque prison  over-crowding and the low
priority given to ‘education’ (including the  courses required to
qualify for release from an IPP) by the prison  authorities, it is often
simply impossible for an IPP prisoner to  undergo the course required.
Unless he has done the course, the parole  board won’t consider him for
release, even though he has served his  tariff. So he has undergone the
punishment imposed by the judge, but  can’t be released because he can’t
do the course that alone will satisfy  the parole board that he is
unlikely to commit a further offence.