The latest episode of Trapped: The IPP Prisoner Scandal is dedicated to the memory of the men and women serving IPP sentences who have died whilst in prison.
Listen to Episode 5 ‘Dear Tommy’ here
Tommy Nicol was serving an IPP sentence for robbery and when his tariff expired and he still wasn’t released from prison, he took his own life. Tommy was just one of many: the total number of IPP serving prisoners who had taken their own lives by the end of 2022 was 81. It’s likely that IPPs are the highest prison cohort for suicides, and we know that the self-harm rate for IPP prisoners is double that of other life sentenced prisoners, and almost double that of determinately sentenced prisoners. In this episode, we investigate the human stories behind these stark statistics.
I visited the ‘SoulsINQUEST’ exhibition in Brixton’s 198 Gallery to speak to INQUEST’s Director, Deborah Coles and look at their exhibition highlighting state violence, death, grief and resistance. It includes a tribute to Tommy, written by his sister Donna Mooney, and a photograph of a bike which signifies ‘the wheel of pain’ . Every week people die of preventable deaths in mental health settings, in immigration detention, following police contact or in prisons. INQUEST was founded in 1981 by bereaved families and campaigners to provide specialist, comprehensive advice on contentious state related deaths and their investigation in England and Wales.
After Tommy's death, Donna became involved in setting up the campaigning organisation UNGRIPP, the ‘United Group for the Reform of IPPs'. Like INQUEST it was also founded by families and campaigners, to raise the issue of the plight of IPP serving prisoners and to advocate for policy change in parliament.
I also met Sir Bob Neil to talk about the evidence he gathered in the Justice Select Committee’s IPP enquiry on self-harm and suicide. We also hear Labour’s John McDonnell raise the issue in parliament. They both highlight how the IPP sentence creates a sense of hopelessness, pushing many serving them over the edge. Lord Blunkett, the architect of the IPP sentence, is posed a hard-hitting question by a former IPP prisoner.
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For more info about the Campaigns for Justice for IPPs prisoners go to: UNGRIPP Twitter @UNGRIPP and IPP Committee in Action Twitter @ActionIPP