The prime minister has announced he will end the injustice of indefinite jail terms in this parliament in a major victory for victims of the scandal.
Andy Burnham said he had taken a “common sense” approach to Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences, which he said he had “long-standing concerns” about.
The Independent has long campaigned for all IPP prisoners to have their sentences reviewed, highlighting the plight of thousands still languishing without a release date.
The action to address IPP comes as the government overhauls plan to release other prisoners early, including two of the killers of Pc Andrew Harper.
“I was faced with a situation where people on those sentences who have more than served their time, not being released when others who’ve committed very serious crimes being released early,” he told the BBC.
“The judgement I’ve made is the public, in my view, would prefer a situation where people who have served their time to be considered for release before those who haven’t.”
The government will table legislation to terminate the sentences by the “end of this Parliament”, he added.
Mr Burnham said although he has always taken a “tough on crime” approach, he had listened to the voices of families with loved ones convicted under IPP sentences.
“There was an injustice in many cases where people were left in prison with no prospect of release, and that has caused real damage, obviously, to those to those people, and a real sense of unfairness,” he continued.
“So, what I’m saying, and what the justice secretary will announce to parliament on Tuesday, is that we will bring forward legislation to end these sentences by the end of this Parliament.”
He noted the government will take a “very careful” approach to how this is done and said a cross-party oversight group would be established.
The open-ended sentences – which The Independent has campaigned for more than two years to have reviewed – were outlawed in 2012, but not retrospectively. Introduced under New Labour in a bid to be tough on crime, they were handed to many repeat offenders, even if their crimes were minor. They have left thousands languishing without a release date, with some now having served up to 22 times longer than their original tariff.
Reacting to the news, campaigner Shirley Debono, whose son Shaun Lloyd has been recalled five times and served nearly 14 years for snatching a phone, said she was “absolutely overwhelmed”.
The mother, who co-founded IPP Committee in Action, said: “After all these years of campaigning, fighting, being ignored and watching IPP prisoners and their families suffer, to finally hear the prime minister say he will end the injustice of IPP sentences this parliament feels incredible.
“The words “people will no longer be trapped indefinitely under a sentence abolished more than a decade ago” are something I never thought I would hear from a prime minister.
“I’m so excited, but also emotional, because I know what this has meant for so many families. I’m thinking of every IPP prisoner who has spent years trapped under this sentence and every family who has fought alongside them.”
Now the fight is to ensure no one is left behind by the legislation being drafted, she said, adding: “After 12 years of campaigning, this is a massive moment.”
Campaign group United Group for Reform of IPP (UNGRIPP) said the IPP nightmare may finally be ending, halting “decades of disproportionate punishment, institutional trauma, and loss of hope”.
CEO Marc Conway said: “This is a day that thousands of families have spent years fighting for. For too long, their loved ones have been trapped by a sentence that was acknowledged as flawed over a decade ago.
“While we welcome this critical action by the government, we do so with heavy hearts for those who did not live to see this day, and for the families torn apart by years of endless uncertainty.
“Legislation alone cannot undo twenty years of damage, but it is the essential first step toward healing.”
UNGRIPP urged the Ministry of Justice and probation services to ensure that the implementation of this decision is swift, transparent, and accompanied by comprehensive community and mental health support for all those transitioning off IPP licenses and out of custody.
Tragically, the move comes too late for 96 IPP prisoners who took their own lives after losing hope of getting out, including Tommy Nicol, who died aged 37 in 2015. Before he died, Tommy described his IPP sentence as “psychological torture of a person who is doing 99 years.”
The announcement comes weeks after the United Nations issued a damning legal opinion which found a number of IPP prisoners were being arbitrarily detained.
The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention condemned Britain’s treatment of these prisoners, including Leroy Douglas, who has served 20 years for a phone robbery; Abdullahi Suleman, who is still in custody 20 years after he was handed an IPP for a laptop robbery; Wayne Williams, who has spent more than 19 years in prison without release for a 23-month jail term for attempting to injure a police officer in a fight; and Mr Lloyd, 39, who was recently hauled back to prison for the fifth time for street robbery. The government is now facing a major legal challenge over their imprisonment.
Sadly, Joshua Mcrae, died in prison aged 34, having served more than 16 years for a four-year tariff for grievous bodily harm.
The are almost 2,300 IPP prisoners still trapped on the jail term, including more than 800 who have never been released. Eight in ten of those who have never been freed have served at least ten years longer than their original minimum tariff.
Andrea Coomber, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “It is fantastic that the prime minister is using this moment of crisis in prisons to do the right thing regarding to the IPP sentence.
“This is a group of people, most very many years over tariff, have suffered a grave injustice and deserve supported release. It is vital that the promise of this moment is not lost and that government follows through on this commitment. People on the sentence and their loved ones have suffered so much – they can not be let down again.”
Labour MP Kim Johnson, who has long called for IPP reform, said the announcement was a “huge moment” for campaigners and the families of IPP prisoners.
“Without all their hard work and determination, we would not be in this position today,” she said in a post on X.
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell agreed it was a “significant breakthrough” to address this “grotesque injustice”, as he called for full details of the government’s plans as soon as possible.
However shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy said he had “serious questions” about the government’s proposals, including the release of IPP prisoners.
“Will they all be released? Just some? How many? And on what timescale? What about those who would have had a life sentence had IPP not existed?,” he wrote on X.
This story is being updated.
