BARELY two weeks since Labour swept to power, prison reform and the desperate need to tackle overcrowding has swept the headlines.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has warned of the “total collapse” of the prison system and a “total breakdown of law and order” if urgent action is not taken. Thousands of prisoners are now due to be released early at the start of September.

All this shows there’s no time like the present to get started with some progressive reforms that will put an end to historic miscarriages of justice, improve the role and outcomes of the criminal justice system, and end the systemic overcrowding of prisons.

There are currently around 3,000 Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) prisoners behind bars. These open-ended sentences were described as the “greatest single stain” on Britain’s criminal justice system by the former Supreme Court Justice Lord Browne Eaton-Under-Heywood, and denounced as “inhumane” and a form of “psychological torture” by UN torture expert Alice Jill Edwards.

As with other life sentences, the IPP is made up of two parts. The time that the judge decides a person must spend in prison (the tariff), and upon release they must serve a licence for the rest of their life, with strict restrictions.

There is no guarantee they will be released after they’ve served their tariff. Eighty-three per cent of IPP prisoners who are still in prison past their release date have served five or more years past their tariff date. If a person with an IPP breaks the terms of their licence they can be returned to prison indefinitely.

These sentences breed despair among IPP prisoners. At least 86 people who were given IPP sentences have committed suicide. The sentence damages prisoners and their families, does untold psychological damage, and throws the principles of restorative justice and rehabilitation out the window.

Cuts to the probation service and other rehabilitative support systems make it difficult for people to integrate back into society and rebuild their lives, especially those imprisoned as teenagers who may not be released until well into their thirties.

IPP sentences were abolished by the coalition government back in 2012, but the ban was applied only to new sentences — leaving thousands locked up, including over 1,200 who have never been released.

Aside from a handful of successful appeals, everyone released on an IPP continues to serve their sentence in the community for life. David Blunkett, the minister who first introduced the sentences in 2005, now campaigns for its removal. 

Campaigners, including the United Group for Reform of IPP (UNGRIPP) are calling for the IPP sentence to be retrospectively abolished and for a resentencing exercise to be undertaken. They are also calling for reforms to the licence period and changes to the release test, including to place the burden of proof on the parole board to prove that the person is still a risk to society.

Joint enterprise sentencing is similarly widely accepted as the cause of thousands of miscarriages of justice, including by the Labour Party. It provides a legal mechanism for large groups of mostly young, black men to be rounded up under the guise of “gang violence” for crimes that some or many of them had no discernible role in committing. 

Described by campaign groups such as Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association (JENGbA) as a “dragnet,” they say joint enterprise sentences are like “Russian roulette” with often no rhyme nor reason behind why one person is picked up by the police and prosecuted under joint enterprise and another is not. If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, it is luck of the draw if you are prosecuted and then locked up for life — disproportionately children and young black men. 

While data is scarce, the pilot study by the Crown Prosecution Service last year indicates that over a thousand people are tried every year for joint enterprise. At a time when we have record backlogs in the courts and our prisons are dangerously overcrowded, we must consider urgent action to end the overzealous application of joint enterprise prosecutions and sentencing.

Earlier this year, I moved a private member’s Bill to reform joint enterprise and ensure that only those who make a “significant contribution” to a crime can be prosecuted for it. In response, the Labour front bench agreed to “reform” joint enterprise when in government. They also recently confirmed their support for abolishing IPP sentences and vowed that the party would “work at pace to make progress on IPPs” when in government.

Now in government, we have inherited record courts backlogs, a crumbling prison system, and a multitude of areas of law where urgent reform is needed to redress historic wrongs. There is no better place to start than where Labour has already made clear commitments to tackling miscarriages of justice, thereby alleviating some of the pressure on the prisons and the entire criminal justice system. 

On Thursday, in response to a question on IPPs, the Lord Chancellor stated that while she will not be addressing the issues in her first steps in government she confirmed that she is “determined to make progress, particularly around the licence period and action plan.” I welcome this commitment and look forward to working with our government to create the change we need to see.

I intend to table an amendment to the King’s Speech next week, calling for action on IPP sentences and joint enterprise. I hope that the new government will hear the strength of feeling and take it forward urgently and begin to finally put an end to these miscarriages of justice once and for all.

Kim Johnson is Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside.