Court rules against IPP detention

High-risk prisoners who are detained indefinitely without having access to rehabilitation courses are having their human rights breached, according to a European ruling. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that controversial sentences without any fixed date for release were breaching prisoners’ human rights. More than 6,500 criminals have been jailed using unspecified sentences for the protection of the public (IPPs) since they were introduced under the Labour government in 2005, although Justice Secretary Ken Clarke revealed plans to scrap the initiative last year. Human rights judges ruled that “IPP prisoners swamped the system in place for dealing with those serving indeterminate sentences” and that because so many inmates had been locked up under the scheme it soon became clear that existing resources were insufficient”. The ruling was made after three British inmates, Brett James, Nicholas Wells and Jeffrey Lee, were handed IPP sentences for offences committed in 2005 and claimed that a refusal to allow them onto courses in prison damaged their chances of showing they had been rehabilitated. The judges added that insufficient resources had “appeared to be the consequence of the introduction of draconian measures for indeterminate detention without the necessary planning and without realistic consideration of the impact of the measures”.

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