source: The Justice Gap

published: 18 June 2024

Image Credit: radnatt at www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net

An IPP prisoner undertaking a second brutal hunger strike, and one who set himself on fire in an attempt to take his own life have raised fresh concerns about the sentence described as ‘a stain on the criminal justice system’.

Yusuf Ali was given an IPP (imprisonment for public protection) sentence over 14 years ago after injuring another prisoner, with the sentence stating he must serve a minimum of three years. He remains in prison after five failed bids for parole.

Ali undertook a hunger strike at the end of last year, protesting his treatment under this cruel sentencing regime. Sir Bob Neill, former chair of the justice select committee, spoke about his case in the house of commons before parliament was dissolved.

He said: ‘This desperately sad case unhappily demonstrates all the harms that the justice committee reports warned that IPP sentences cause… Any new government should act swiftly to erase this stain on our justice system.’

Mr Ali’s mother spoke to the Independent about the ordeal, saying when she visited him in January after the first hunger strike, he looked ‘like bones on the floor’.

She criticised the fact that despite IPP sentences have been outlawed, those still serving them have not been resentenced: ‘IPP has been outlawed now. It’s against the law. So anybody who is on an IPP needs to be reviewed.’ Ali started a second hunger strike at the end of May.

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