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| Ken Clarke: 'absurd' that defunct prison scheme still keeps people in jail | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The former justice secretary Ken Clarke has criticised as “absurd” the situation where a defunct scheme for sentencing prisoners to indeterminate sentences means a man given a 10-month term is still in prison almost 10 years later. | The former justice secretary Ken Clarke has criticised as “absurd” the situation where a defunct scheme for sentencing prisoners to indeterminate sentences means a man given a 10-month term is still in prison almost 10 years later. |
| The case of James Ward, now 31, was highlighted by BBC Radio 4’s Today after he wrote to the programme saying he felt “trapped in a box” over his continued incarceration under a sentencing programme which was abolished as a failure in 2012. | The case of James Ward, now 31, was highlighted by BBC Radio 4’s Today after he wrote to the programme saying he felt “trapped in a box” over his continued incarceration under a sentencing programme which was abolished as a failure in 2012. |
| Ward is among thousands of prisoners still incarcerated under the imprisonment for public protection (IPP) system, introduced in 2003 by the then-Labour government. Those jailed under the guidelines must remain in jail until they can prove to a parole board they are no longer a threat. | |
| Initially targeted at fewer than 1,000 serious offenders, the IPP system was used to sentence about 6,000 people, many for minor crimes. According to the BBC, 4,000 remain in jail, and 400 of these have served more than five times the minimum term. | |
| Ward, who has a troubled background and mental health problems, was initially jailed for a year under normal sentencing guidelines for attacking his father during a domestic argument. But near the end of that sentence he set fire to his prison mattress, and received an IPP with a minimum term of 10 months. He has remained in jail ever since. According to his family, Ward frequently self-harms, barricades himself in his cell or sets light to it, and stages dirty protests. | Ward, who has a troubled background and mental health problems, was initially jailed for a year under normal sentencing guidelines for attacking his father during a domestic argument. But near the end of that sentence he set fire to his prison mattress, and received an IPP with a minimum term of 10 months. He has remained in jail ever since. According to his family, Ward frequently self-harms, barricades himself in his cell or sets light to it, and stages dirty protests. |
| Clarke, as justice secretary, abolished IPP sentences in 2012, but those who were jailed under them can only be freed by a parole board. “It is quite absurd that there are people who might be there for the rest of their lives, in theory, who are serving a sentence which parliament agreed to get rid of because it hadn’t worked as anybody intended a few years ago,” Clarke told Today on Monday. | |
| “The trouble is this ridiculous burden on the parole board of saying they can only release people if it’s proved to them that they’re not really a danger to the public. No prisoner can prove that – you never know when people are going to lose their control, what’s going to happen to them when they’re released.” | “The trouble is this ridiculous burden on the parole board of saying they can only release people if it’s proved to them that they’re not really a danger to the public. No prisoner can prove that – you never know when people are going to lose their control, what’s going to happen to them when they’re released.” |
| The veteran Conservative, now a backbench MP, said the IPP was indicative of an approach to justice under Labour “determined for fear of the tabloid newspapers”. | |
| Clarke said: “You have a few thousand people still in our prisons with no idea when they are going to get out and a parole board that dare not let them out for fear of public attack if one of them does something serious when they said they were satisfied that they were safe. You can’t be satisfied.” | |
| Michael Gove, the current justice secretary, this month announced a review into prisoners potentially trapped in jail under IPP, saying they “need to be given hope that they can contribute positively to society in the future”. | Michael Gove, the current justice secretary, this month announced a review into prisoners potentially trapped in jail under IPP, saying they “need to be given hope that they can contribute positively to society in the future”. |
| Related: Indeterminate sentences: a 'stain' on the criminal justice system | Sophie Barnes | Related: Indeterminate sentences: a 'stain' on the criminal justice system | Sophie Barnes |
| Ward’s solicitor, Pippa Carruthers, told the BBC that his actions were connected to mental health problems, themselves exacerbated by prison: “He becomes overwhelmed. He loses sight of what he needs to do to prove to a parole board that he is no longer a risk, and he acts destructively.” | Ward’s solicitor, Pippa Carruthers, told the BBC that his actions were connected to mental health problems, themselves exacerbated by prison: “He becomes overwhelmed. He loses sight of what he needs to do to prove to a parole board that he is no longer a risk, and he acts destructively.” |
| His sister, April, said the family were becoming desperate. “I do believe that one day we’ll get the phone call that Jimmy has taken his own life, definitely,” she said. | His sister, April, said the family were becoming desperate. “I do believe that one day we’ll get the phone call that Jimmy has taken his own life, definitely,” she said. |
| In letters to the programme, Ward said he was “rotting” in the system. According to the BBC, his case has not been reviewed for two years, and because of a lack of psychiatric assessment he might have to wait another year for a parole board hearing. | In letters to the programme, Ward said he was “rotting” in the system. According to the BBC, his case has not been reviewed for two years, and because of a lack of psychiatric assessment he might have to wait another year for a parole board hearing. |
| “I find prison hard to cope with, being trapped in a box,” Ward wrote. “Prison is not fit to accommodate people like me with mental health problems. It’s made me worse. How can I change in a place like this? I wake up every morning scared of what the day may hold.” | “I find prison hard to cope with, being trapped in a box,” Ward wrote. “Prison is not fit to accommodate people like me with mental health problems. It’s made me worse. How can I change in a place like this? I wake up every morning scared of what the day may hold.” |