PRT comment: Government’s response to IPP sentence report ‘wholly inadequate’

Commenting on the publication today (9 February) of the government response to the Justice Committee’s report on the IPP sentences, Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust said:

“The Government should be thoroughly ashamed of this wholly inadequate response to a serious cross-party attempt to right a terrible historic wrong. On resentencing, it had an opportunity to begin a process that could have addressed the many practical complexities that the committee acknowledged. Its blanket refusal to do so suggests we have a Ministry of Justice in name only.

“The committee made many other practical recommendations which could improve the lot of people on this awful sentence. But despite repeatedly delaying its response, most of what the government offers in response is either the promise of future reviews, or complacent descriptions of current processes which  the committee and everyone familiar with the treatment of people serving the IPP sentence knows are failing.

“The committee’s recommendations do not go away, and the inadequate response from this government means that any future justice secretary will have to revisit them. In this bleak moment, we must keep alive the hope that a more statesmanlike approach will prevail in the end.”