The government has recently announced a set of emergency measures to release prisoners early to stop prisons becoming full in England and Wales.
In a debate last Thursday on prison capacity, the new Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood told MPs that since she took office it had become clear that “our prisons are in crisis”. As of May, the prison population was at 87,505, with an official usable capacity at 88,895.
The main proposal is to automatically release prisoners on ‘standard determinate sentences’ after they have served 40-45% of their sentence – currently they are released after serving 50% of their sentence. There will be exemptions for sexual and serious violent offenders. However, concerns have been raised against these proposals by charities such as Refuge that early-release schemes under the last government freed several people jailed for domestic abuse.
INQUEST, a charity supporting families of those who have died in state-related deaths, have long campaigned for action to address the persistent failure of prison and healthcare services to rectify dangerous practices. Many of these deaths are preventable and as a result of neglect and systemic failings in care. One of the recommendations to end deaths caused by unsafe systems is for the government to commit to a reduction in prison population and diverting people away from the criminal justice system.
There are now renewed calls for the government to tackle IPP prisoners and Joint Enterprise, which both add to the prison population and are criticised as miscarriages of justice.
Calls for diverting resources to community alternatives to protect lives
There have been calls by INQUEST to divert resources away from the £42bn earmarked for prison expansion to community, social, education, and health services. The government should be looking at rehabilitation and ensuring effective services are available, including mental health care, so that people are able to be reintegrated back into society.
Last year, one quarter of the deaths in prison were by self-inflicted means.
Factors in rates of offending and re-offending include poverty, mental health, and alcohol and drug abuse. The current Prime Minister Kier Starmer has said he wanted early intervention to stop young boys in particular from involvement with knife crime and going to prison numerous times.
Further, cuts to the probation service and other rehabilitative support systems make it difficult for people to rebuild their lives and integrate back into society, leading to high re-offending rates.
The newly appointed Prisons Minister James Timpson said earlier this year that “we’re addicted to punishment” and that only a third of prisoners should be there. Alex Chalk, the Justice Secretary under the old government said that he thought more people should be given suspended sentences, rather than custodial sentences, which he said increased the likelihood of reoffending.
IPP Prisoners and Joint Enterprise
Kim Johnson MP is planning an amendment to the King’s Speech this week to tackle both IPP sentences and Joint Enterprise, saying: “I hope that the new government will hear the strength of feeling and take it forward urgently and begin to finally put an end to these miscarriages of justice once and for all.”
Earlier this year the Labour front bench agreed to “reform” Joint Enterprise and they also vowed to “work at pace to make progress on IPPs” when in government, yet these issues are not being addressed at this stage.
IPP Prisoners
We previously wrote about how calls have increased to review prisoners on IPP sentences.
Imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences were introduced in 2003, with those given an IPP sentence having to serve a minimum tariff before being detained for an indefinite period until they could prove they are no longer a risk. These sentences are now widely acknowledged as wrong, with the sentences being abolished in 2012, however, as this was not applied retrospectively, there are still over 2,700 IPP prisoners, 99% of whom have served their tariff.
The rate of self-harm among IPP prisoners is more than twice that of the general prison population and following a recent inquest in March 2024, the Senior Coroner for Milton Keynes wrote in a Prevention of Future Deaths Report to the Minister of State for Prisoner, Parole and Probation that: “if action is not taken to review all prisoner’s sentences to IPP then there is a risk of further deaths occurring.”
Our inquest team at Farleys represented the family for the inquest into the death of Kelvin Speakman, who died in 2016. Kelvin had a troubled childhood and a long history of mental ill-health. In 2007, he was given an IPP sentence with a minimum tariff of two years, yet he was still in prison nine years on. The jury found a number of failings in the ACCT process for prisoners at risk of self-harm and the Senior Coroner issued a Prevention of Future Deaths Report to HM Prison Service.
Joint Enterprise
Joint Enterprise is used to prosecute someone who ‘assists or encourages’ an offence, however, is often used in a much wider way to convict someone who had made no significant contribution to a crime. There is a racial disproportionality for young black men to be convicted under Joint Enterprise and it has been said there is a very real likelihood that some convictions are underpinned by discriminatory practices.
The campaign group Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association (JENGbA) have said: “If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, it is luck of the draw if you are prosecuted and then locked up for life — disproportionately children and young black men.”
A pilot study by the CPS last year indicates that over a thousand people are tried every year for joint enterprise. At a time when we have record backlogs in the courts and the prisons are at capacity, there are calls to end the overzealous application of Joint Enterprise prosecutions.
How Farleys Can Help
Here at Farleys, we have a wealth of experience in assisting families of those who have died in prison. Often, legal aid will be available for family members to be represented at an inquest when someone has died in prison.
If your loved one has passed away while in custody, our team will do all they can to offer you advice and support throughout the process. Call us on 0845 287 0939 or send your enquiry through our online form.
As a full-service law firm, we also have an experienced criminal defence team who are able to assist with representation during police investigations or prosecutions.