GENEVA (30 August 2023) – A UN torture expert today called on the UK Government to begin an urgent review of sentences imposed on prisoners held indefinitely under the widely discredited and now abandoned Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) system.
“The Government must step up its efforts to ensure rehabilitation opportunities for all those affected, as well as access to adequate and appropriate reparations,” said Alice Jill Edwards, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
At the end of last year, nearly 2,900 people were still serving IPP sentences. A recent UK Parliamentary report highlighted the significant psychological harm suffered by these prisoners – including high levels of self-harm, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts and actual suicides. IPP prisoners are reportedly two and a half times more likely to self-harm than the general prison population.