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Fresh blow for prisoners locked up under indefinite jail terms

Former IPP prisoner calls for end to 'torture' of indefinite jail terms

Ministry of Justice figures project that at least 520 prisoners serving Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences will remain incarcerated by March 2030, never having been released.
Britain's former top judge, Lord John Thomas, has condemned the government's 'IPP Action Plan' as a 'failure' that will not resolve the 'obvious injustice' of these indefinite jail terms.
The controversial IPP sentences, abolished in 2012 but not retrospectively, have been linked to nearly 100 suicides and are criticised for trapping individuals, some for minor offences, without a release date.
These projections exclude hundreds of people recalled to prison for licence breaches or those in secure hospitals due to mental health issues, indicating an even larger affected population.
Campaign groups and families are urging the government to implement a full resentencing exercise to end the 'nightmare' of indefinite detention, rather than merely managing the issue.