IPP, A letter to Ms E Truss 18 month tariff for a first offence. Eleven years later, he is still in prison.

A letter to Ms E Truss

Ford.
Monday 22 August

Ms E Truss

Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

Ministry of Justice

102 Petty France

London SW1H 9AJ

Monday 22 August 2016

Dear Ms Truss

IPP Prisoners

I support a man with an 18 month tariff for a first offence.  Eleven years later, he is still in prison, showing more sanity and endurance than I would in his circumstances. He effectively has a life sentence, waiting for the Parole Board to show even they think this amount of deliberation for a first offence is excessive and cruel as his life drifts away in the equivalent of a heavily locked cupboard with a bed, toilet and dirty windows.

‘Offender Managers’, as they are now called, have too much power, his most recent one at HMP Hull saying if she had her way, he would be locked up and kept there, that she would only have annual paperwork to do if he was inside, rather than weekly if he was out.  Why are people of this poor quality being employed at all?  Privatisation?

 If they actually let him out, he then has ten years on licence, liable to be recalled, with no  explanation or notice, to spend further years in a prison he thought he had just got out of.  This is like keeping a dog on a leash, instantly available to be brought to heel at the say-so of the offender manager, forced to return to his barred and bricked kennel until somebody deigns to deliberate a bit more, any employment he might have had disappearing behind him, employers in future not wanting to risk trusting someone liable to be whisked off to prison at a moment’s notice, for something as vague as not showing ‘good behaviour.’ Actually, I would treat a dog better than this.

I want dangerous people kept off the streets, but not at the cost of a cruel sentence that does the ordinary prisoner, anguishing families and society no good at all.

I don’t understand anyone who can look at anything like an eleven year sentence for an initial, 18 months, non-violent offence and consider it to be  less than iniquitous and crying out for urgent remedy.

I am asking for you to change the release test for IPP prisoners under Section 28 of the LASPO Act, and abandon the preposterous 99 year licence for prisoners who are not dangerous.

 My friend is described as ‘low risk’, although we are not talking here about the likelihood of self harm/suicide.  Some men just can’t stand the vicious uncertainty any longer.  Over 50% of IPP prisoners mutilate or kill themselves.  How much higher does this figure have to get before the powerful are roused to action?

I have no family connection with those suffering the ongoing nastiness of IPP sentences, am just outraged as what has been allowed to go on for so long, but can begin to imagine the depth of their suffering, and that of the prisoners with no idea if and when they will be let out as the years pass by.  Can you?

I am all for justice but discern none here, being filled with contempt for what passes as acceptable process. 

You have the power. I beg you to do something constructive, fast, about this interminably grotesque situation.

Zing August 24 at 2:11pm

As soon as my lobby group has got charitable status, and if there is pro bono solicitors i need to work with then so Katherine Gleeson if you know anyone who know about ipp, judicial reveiw or human rights i think the fact that the people of this country wouldnt accept ipp if they knew, most dont beleive me that it exists and i served 7 for them to not beleive me saying i must have done all sorts i didnt do anything, i was so oppressed, different to everyone else how i'm treated, i was just stressed into zombe like behaviour for the most part.

Prin
My partner was given ipp in 2006, 18 month tariff and recomended 3 half years. Hes still serving 10 years on. Watch uks forgotten prisoners on youtube for our story. Thanks

Most important new cabinet member British Legal System

Is the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, the Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP. 

This is because She ultimately responsible for ensuring that the British Legal System works in the interests of the British people.

 https://home.38degrees.org.uk/2016/08/25/ipp-prisoners-campaign-update/
 https://www.facebook.com/groups/katherinegleeson17/

https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/-/IPP%20lobby%20group%20meeting%20August%202016%20%281%29.pdf

 

 

 

Have your say Template letter

<Your Name>

<Address>

<Town>

<City>

<Post Code>

<Date>

FAO Rt Hon. Ms Elizabeth Truss

Ministry of Justice

102 Petty France

London

SW1H 9AJ

Dear Rt Honourable Elizabeth Truss, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

IPP PRISONERS

Congratulations on being elected as the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice to the 2016 Parliament.  I am asking for your support on an issue that is extremely important to my family and myself, and also for your advice on how we can achieve the necessary changes in the law to protect victims both in our constituency and UK-wide.

We are asking you to be committed to change the situation for IPP Prisoners.

Firstly, we would ask you to exercise your powers to change the release test for the IPP Prisoners under Section 128 of the LASPO Act, so that the basic premise is that the Prisoner is safe to be released, unless there are exceptionally strong arguments against this.

Secondly, we would also ask you to remove the “99 year licence”.  As a consequence of this licence a large number of potential workers (ex-Prisoners) get ignored by employers because of their Criminal Record.  Everyone should be entitled to a second chance in life whether they had committed a crime or not.  Currently, the liability of the licence and the discrimination not only affects the Prisoners themselves but their family’s health and mental state.

At the very least, the Law already provides for long licence periods for ordinary Prisoners who need close monitoring on Release, by “extended” sentences.  These could be applied to IPP Prisoners, thus giving them a definite release date and an end to the often unbearable uncertainty and hopelessness of their situation.

Our loved ones have paid the penalty and done their time – sometimes several times over or on most occasions for nothing.  Now it is time to give them their lives back.

<PERSONAL STORY HERE> - add the line:  “This issue has deeply affected my family.”

I am looking to you to act justly and to put an end – finally - to this “stain on the British justice system”.

Yours sincerely,