4m
“A long running injustice”.
That’s how Andy Burnham described IPPs – or ‘imprisonment for public protection’ sentences.
They were abolished in 2012, but not applied retrospectively, so there are still more than 2,000 people in prison today in England and Wales on the indefinite sentences with no idea when they will be released – and some following more minor crimes like theft.
It’s a situation the UN has said causes “profound psychological suffering” and amounts to “arbitrary detention”. As the government attempts to wrangle an already overstretched prison system, we spoke to those who see this at the moment to right a historic wrong.
