A Helping Hand: Supporting families in the resettlement of people serving IPPs

The indeterminate sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) was created in 2003. Over 8,000 sentences were imposed in total, and despite the sentence being abolished in 2012, approximately 2,500 IPP prisoners remain in English and Welsh prisons. Those released remain under licence and the numbers recalled to prison are growing.

This report focuses on measures to ameliorate the pains experienced by families of IPP prisoners, and to reduce the barriers that hinder their efforts to support their relative. The families’ pains are tied directly to the IPP sentence itself and to the prisoners’ experiences.