Abstract
AbstractThis article explores some of the key pathologies of English penal politics by applying an interpretive political analysis perspective to the specific issue of the plight of the ‘prisoners left behind’, the thousands of indeterminate‐sentenced IPP (imprisonment for public protection) prisoners who remain incarcerated, notwithstanding the abolition in 2012 of this sentencing option targeted at ‘dangerous offenders’. The article draws on research findings from an ESRC funded study of penal policymaking to examine why the Gordian knot of the prisoners left behind has proved to be so hard to untangle. The broader lessons of this specific story are then set out. In particular, it is argued that the public and political debate around criminal justice has become damagingly narrow over recent years.
Highlights
This article explores some of the key pathologies of English penal politics, by applying an interpretive political analysis perspective to the specific issue of the plight of the ‘prisoners left behind’, the thousands of indeterminate-sentenced imprisonment for public protection (IPP) prisoners who remain incarcerated notwithstanding the abolition of this sentencing option targeted at ‘dangerous offenders’ in 2012
This typically requires an IPP prisoner to progress through the penal estate towards open conditions, along the way completing various offender behaviour programmes (OBPs) deemed to be required in order for them to ‘address their risk’
In 2003, an indeterminate sentence targeted at dangerous offenders – the IPP (Imprisonment for Public Protection) – was introduced by the Labour government’s Criminal Justice Act
Summary
This article explores some of the key pathologies of English penal politics, by applying an interpretive political analysis perspective to the specific issue of the plight of the ‘prisoners left behind’, the thousands of indeterminate-sentenced IPP (imprisonment for public protection) prisoners who remain incarcerated notwithstanding the abolition of this sentencing option targeted at ‘dangerous offenders’ in 2012. Probation services are still reeling from the reckless marketization imposed by the 2010-15 Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government Within this troubling context exist 3,100 indeterminate-sentenced prisoners, serving sentences of imprisonment for public protection (IPP). Over two-thirds of unreleased prisoners received an IPP for offences of violence against the person or sexual offences These individuals will only be released from prison when the Parole Board is ‘satisfied that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that the prisoner should be confined’. I will suggest that the intersections of these two dynamics pose considerable difficulties for remaining IPP prisoners They point to the broader lessons provided by a sentence that, while abolished, continues to have significant effects
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