A video that has been posted online by campaigner, lawyer and the CEO of Campaign for Social Justice Peter Stefanovic has ignited a public storm by bringing the issue of the IPP sentencing scandal to a wide audience.

Now on a staggering 14 million views the following are typical of the comments it is getting,

“Truly shocking”

“Absolutely horrifying”

“Unbelievable”

“Utterly awful”

“Madness”

“inconceivable”

“cruel”

There has been overwhelming public support for this film which has manifested in an online petition signed by thousands which has forced the Government to respond.

Peter Stefanovic, a social media sensation, said:

“The public support for my film has been overwhelming & the comments it is getting are a testament to the public’s anger, outrage & disbelief at this tragic miscarriage of justice. If Labour step up next week and back the amendments supported in the Lords by both Lib Dem and Green Party peers we can end this tragedy now. It’s time to do what we all know is right before more lives are tragically lost”

IPP sentences were introduced in England and Wales by the New Labour government with the Criminal Justice Act 2003, as it sought to prove it was tough on law and order. They were put in place to detain indefinitely serious offenders who were perceived to be a risk to the public. However, they were also used against offenders who had committed low-level crimes.

Astonishingly, this sentence has led to some people spending 18 years in jail for trying to steal a coat or imprisoned for 11 years for stealing a mobile phone.

In 2012, after widespread condemnation and a ruling by the European court of human rights that such sentences were, “arbitrary and therefore unlawful”, IPP terms were abolished by the Conservative government. But the measure was not retrospective, and thousands remain in prison.

90 people serving sentences under the discredited IPP regime have sadly taken their own lives whilst in prison. In 2023 we saw the second year in a row of the highest number of self-inflicted deaths since the IPP sentence was introduced.

The former supreme court justice Lord Brown has called IPP sentences: “the greatest single stain on the justice system”. When Rt Hon Michael Gove MP was justice secretary, he recommended, “executive clemency” for IPP prisoners who had served terms much longer than their tariffs.

But he didn’t act on it.

Lord Blunkett, the Labour home secretary who introduced the sentences, regrets them, stating: “I got it wrong.” And more recently, Dr Alice Edwards, the UN rapporteur for torture has called IPP sentences an “egregious miscarriage of justice.” Even the Justice Secretary Rt Hon Alex Chalk KC MP has also called them a stain on the justice system but the Government has so far refused to implement the Justice Committees recommendation to re-sentence all prisoners subject to IPP sentences.

CAMPAIGN FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

Campaign groups & their families have been fighting to end this tragic miscarriage of justice for more than a decade and now the film posted online by Peter Stefanovic has ignited a wider public storm on this tragic miscarriage of justice. The public reaction to it his film has been one of shock, outrage, and disbelief.

HOPE FOR JUSTICE

Hope for justice at last now comes in the form of 2 amendments tabled in the House of Lords to the Victims & Prisoners Bill (161 & 167) by Lord Moylan which are backed by the Lib Dems and Green Party peers, and which have wide cross bench support.

Amendment 167 seeks to implement the Justice Committees recommendation to re-sentence all prisoners subject to IPP sentences. Amendment 161 would require the state to demonstrate that a prisoner is still a risk to the public rather than, as at present, requiring the prisoner to prove the opposite. Under the proposed amendment, they would be released unless the Parole Board “is satisfied that it remains necessary and proportionate for the protection of the public from serious harm that they should continue to be confined”.

Amendment is 161 is supported by Lord Blunkett, Baroness Chakrabarti & the former deputy president of the Supreme Court Lord Hope of Craighead. It’s also supported by the Bar Council, representing 17,000 barristers in England and Wales. The outpouring of public support generated by Stefanovic’s video adds further pressure on Keir Starmers Labour to step up and act by backing the amendments tabled by Lord Moylan that are supported by Lib Dem and Green Party peers.

With Labour support this stain on our justice system can finally be ended,

NOW.

The amendments above will be debated in the House of Lords on 12 March.

Let’s not wait for an ITV drama to do the right thing.

Let’s not sit by whilst more tragically lose their lives. We must act now & we must act URGENTLY.