The UN has condemned the ‘psychological torture’ of IPP – when will the UK government?

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. As The Independent reveals today, Dr Edwards finds that the treatment of a certain class of prisoners, held under an inherently unjust and anachronistic regime of indefinite detention, probably amounts to “arbitrary detention” by the UK, “psychological torture” and, “very likely”, a breach of their human rights. Lord Timpson, appointed as a minister with the change of government, not only has expertise in this field, he has demonstrated the much-needed empathy and zeal to aid the most vulnerable prisoners – and if he helps right this ugly wrong, may even reach heroic, Wilberforcian heights. It soon became clear that the IPP sentences were a poor substitute for a conventional system of stiff sentencing and judicious parole; adding an indefinite – ie unlimited – period of custody to sometimes brief custodial sentences could and has led to grotesque results. Notably, those who have been incarcerated for longer than they would have been on the ordinary definite sentencing system.” One immediate problem seems to be a reluctance on the part of ministers to progress IPP cases to open prisons, with day release, even when the Parole Board recommends it.