It is scarcely believable that there are still 2,614 people in prison in Britain serving indefinite sentences under legislation that was repealed 13 years ago – at a time when other prisoners are being released early because the jails are full.
The government is now being given the chance to end this monstrous injustice – and to ease prison overcrowding – by adopting a plan drawn up by Lord Thomas, the former lord chief justice.
Indeterminate sentences were brought in under the last Labour government as an exceptional measure for prisoners considered too dangerous to release without special safeguards. But Labour peer David Blunkett, who introduced the legislation, said that many more such sentences were handed out than he had intended, and the policy was the “biggest regret” of his career.
The sentence was abolished by the coalition government, but existing prisoners continued to be subject to the stringent rules, not knowing whether they would ever be released and, if they were, being recalled to prison for minor offences.
Thus, there have been a succession of terrible cases reported by The Independent, including those of Leroy Douglas, who has served almost 20 years for stealing a mobile phone, and Abdullahi Suleman, who is still inside 19 years after he was jailed for stealing a laptop.
Plainly, there is more to their stories than this, and the Parole Board does need to be sure that those who are released are unlikely to be a danger to the public. But it cannot be right that, had they committed their crime a day after indeterminate sentences were abolished, they would have long been freed.
What makes it worse is that other prisoners, some of whom pose a greater risk to the public than they do, are being let out early to free up prison places.
As we report today, Lord Thomas has led a panel of experts in drawing up proposals to give every prisoner serving an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence a release date within two years, and to recall them only as a last resort.
James Timpson, the prisons minister and Labour peer, should accept this workable and detailed plan and seek to close this shameful chapter in the history of British criminal justice. Presumably, the only reason that he has not acted to end this scandal already is that Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, is reluctant. Having been forced to order the early release of prisoners to avoid the police having to let criminals go because there is nowhere to put them, she does not want to hand further ammunition to ignorant critics who accuse her of being soft on crime.
She has shown courage in taking the difficult measures forced on her by the irresponsibility of Conservative ministers, who allowed prisons to reach crisis point. She should show some more bravery in doing the right thing, which can even be sold, in part, as another emergency measure to free up prison places.
If she will not do it, Sir Keir Starmer should instruct her to. He is the law and order prime minister, the former director of public prosecutions, who understands the criminal justice system better than any minister. He cannot allow this injustice to continue and must act on Lord Thomas’s recommendations.
We understand that the prime minister has taken to asking officials with increasing frequency, as he gets to grips with the frustrations of trying to deliver change: “Why not today?”
Why, we should ask him, not put an end to this scandal today?
