If our prisons are at breaking point, why are prisoners sentenced to one year still there 19 years later?

When any royal visits a prison, the governor inevitably chooses only the most trusted residents to take part in any meet-and-greet. James Lawrence, handed an eight-month minimum tariff in 2006 by a judge as part of an IPP sentence for threatening someone with an imitation pistol, is still inside more than 18 years later. But that doesn’t mean that I am not pissed off every single day about what happened to me, what was taken away from me.” Thomas White pictured with his son, Kayden, aged just 10 months Once they had been introduced in 2005, the reality of IPP sentences didn’t bear much relation to the government’s rhetoric about why they would be effective. Indeed, the random overuse by judges, with no explanation, of IPP sentences began to concern even the ministers who had introduced them Today, there are still 2,734 IPP prisoners with no release date, of whom 1,132 have never been let out. Many of them have been left so unwell that releasing them into the community is not an option unless it is to somewhere they will be safe and cared for.” Many still suffer the effects of IPP sentences long after they’ve left prison Such facilities are few and far between after all the years of austerity.