The use of indeterminate prison sentences breaches inmates’ human rights, the European Court of Human Rights has unanimously ruled.
The decision potentially affects more than 6,000 prisoners in England and Wales serving indeterminate sentences for public protection (IPP).
The case, James, Wells and Lee v UK (application nos 25119/09, 57715/09, 57877/09), was brought by three prisoners who were held for nearly three years more than recommended at trial, and who were subsequently each awarded up to around £6,500 in compensation along with roughly £9,600 in costs.
The Strasbourg judges held the men’s detention had been “arbitrary and therefore unlawful”, and agreed that rehabilitation was one of the purposes of their detention. Their decision contradicts a unanimous House of Lords decision that IPPs do not breach prisoners’ human rights (Secretary of State for Justice v James [2009] UKHL 22).
IPP sentences, under which prisoners serve a minimum tariff and are released at the direction of the Parole Board, were introduced for certain categories of offence in 2005 and ceased to be mandatory in 2008.
Frances Crook, of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “In practice, the IPP has proved a disaster that has left many in a Catch 22 situation where they can only be released from prison after completing courses that our overcrowded prisons cannot provide.”
