Indeterminate sentences causing havoc

London: Thousands of prisoners have been left locked up in a "bureaucratic limbo" in jails in England and Wales without a date for their release, according to a research report published yesterday.

Leading criminologists say that the indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP), which was introduced in April 2005, has wrought havoc in the justice system and proved "one of the least carefully planned and implemented pieces of legislation in the history of sentencing".

The joint report by the Prison Reform Trust and the Institute for Criminal Policy Research at King's College, London, says that more than 6,034 people had been given an IPP sentence by the end of last year and well over 2,500 of them have already passed their "tariff point" the minimum date after which the Parole Board can authorise their release. Almost 500 are at least two years past their minimum release date.

Impossible burden

The report says that the explosion in the use of IPP sentences by the courts and a negligible release rate has placed an impossible burden on overstretched prisons.

The authors, Jessica Jacobson and Mike Hough, say that an urgent review of the use of the sentence needs to be carried as part. It argues that many IPP prisoners are unable to get on the offending behaviour courses they need to persuade the Parole Board to fix their release date, leaving them with no means of gaining legitimate release.