21/06/2021
Police Oracle
Work with offenders on a new guide for families of prisoners serving indeterminate sentences
On Friday Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) published a new guide for family members of people serving indeterminate prison sentences. Indeterminate prison sentences, mainly life sentences or sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPPs) are sentences where there is no definite release date.
England and Wales has the largest proportion of indeterminate sentences in Europe; on 31 March this year, there were 8,738 (8,407 male; 331 female) indeterminate sentenced prisoners in prison, a staggering 13.5% of the sentenced prison population.
The new guide recognises that family members or partners can play vital supportive role in rehabilitation and resettlement for indeterminate prisoners and that it can be very difficult for families of people in this situation. Indeed, Harry Annison and colleagues from the University of Southampton has been conducting a series of research studies in recent years on the impact of being a family member of someone serving an IPP. The main themes of their research are the secondary pain and distress experienced by family members ‘on behalf’ of the IPP prisoner). Alongside the emotional strain, the research found that relatives had become case workers on behalf of the prisoner, always ready to present and explain the individual’s case files in painstaking detail. Families were often excluded from processes and decisions relating to their relative and their successful rehabilitation. In particular, the research found that communication could be variable and often poor and that information needed by families was often “difficult to obtain, opaque and sometimes simply did not exist”. It is clear that the new guide is HMPPS attempt to address this lack of information.
The guide
The guide sets out to explain what indeterminate sentences are, give an understanding of what life in prison is like for someone serving such a sentence and give information on the sentence planning and parole processes. It also provides an overview of all the different processes affecting people on indeterminate sentences when they are released, in particular the procedures for being recalled to prison.
The guide includes a number of “myth busters” which try to address common misconceptions about indeterminate prison sentences. The guide also provides additional information about a number of important issues such as the different types of security category for men and women prisoners and the Offender Management in Custody (OMic) model – the prison officer key worker scheme. It also has a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section and a very useful glossary of official terms and acronyms.
The FAQ sections addresses a number of the questions frequently raised by people serving indeterminate sentences and their families and friends including:
HMPPS is to be applauded for publishing this information and trying to make the situation around indeterminate prisoners more transparent and easier to understand for their loved ones. Of course, the information is, by its nature complex, and many will feel that their loved ones have not necessarily been subject to the processes and procedures as set out in this document.
The guidance is particularly useful for the families of people on IPP sentences, a sentence which was abolished nine years ago. However, those family members are likely to be more concerned that there remain 1,895 people in prison serving an IPP sentence who have never been released. More than nine in 10 of these people are still in prison despite having already served their tariff—the minimum period they must spend in custody and considered necessary to serve as punishment for the offence. Scandalously, one in six (17%) people who have yet to be released have a tariff of less than two years, with two thirds of these IPPs (199 individuals) having served more than ten years – over eight years more than the sentencing judge felt was appropriate.