17th August 2024 “I had a parole hearing recently and the first question I was asked was how have I managed to reconcile my relationship with my mum  due to the trauma that I suffered as a child.” The client who wrote this is a child lifer:  he received an indeterminate sentence for public protection […]

5 July 2024 The decision in R v B to reduce the sentence of a mother by 12 months to avoid the risk of further separation from her baby, handed down by the Court of Appeal on 4 July 2024, coincided with headlines warning of a “one in one out” policy due to severe overcrowding. […]

14 May 2024 As the Victims and Prisoners Bill progresses through Parliament in the coming weeks, reforms to the process of terminating IPP sentences for good come closer to fruition.  The ability to terminate an IPP licence is its distinguishing feature from other indeterminate sentences.  Of course, the conviction does not disappear and will never […]

27 March 2024 Miscarriages of justice have hit the headlines over the past year with the case of Andrew Malkinson and the Post Office Scandal highlighting the importance of a healthy and functioning system of criminal appeals. There can be no doubt of the need for criminal appeals work to be properly funded. In both […]

The recent news [1] that children under the age of 18 may be responsible for more than half of all reported child abuse cases is an urgent call to action. The report states: “Senior officers say this abuse includes “exploratory behaviour” under-18s may not realise is illegal, and rape.” Children often do not know what […]

4 December 2023 Today the House of Commons will hold a debate on the Victims and Prisoners Bill as it reaches report stage. In the course of this debate, a series of amendments (PDF download) on the notorious IPP sentence will be considered, including one tabled by the government (New Clause 26). The proposal is […]

10 November 2023 Last week saw a rare glimmer of hope for my client, Ryan.* He was one of the 326 children sentenced to an indeterminate sentence of detention for public protection, the IPP sentence for children. Finally, aged 29, after the expiry of the ten year qualifying period, and following detailed representations to the […]

The prison population has soared in the last year to well beyond pre-pandemic levels  (from 82904 on 30 August 2019 to 87,063 on 25 August 2023) and is projected to rise to over 106,000 by 2027, as sentence lengths continue to increase and discretionary release becomes subject to greater scrutiny.  Yet, information about what exists […]

Making the IPP termination process effective 25 August 2023 Earlier this week, the Justice Secretary announced he was considering reducing the qualifying period in which people on IPP sentences can apply to have the licence terminated.  I wrote about this process on 8 June 2023.  At the moment, it kicks in ten years after a […]