Driven to mental ill-health: The 233 IPP prisoners in secure hospitals

B.By the time he was hospitalized, Thomas White had spent 13 years in prison with no hope of release.

Due to the abolition of his indefinite prison sentence for stealing a mobile phone, which was considered “psychological torture” by the UN, he went into psychosis and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

His family had fought for six years to get him transferred to hospital after he endured repeated mental health crises in prison, including setting himself on fire in desperation and slamming his own face on the cell floor. His family hoped that moving to the hospital would finally give him the hope he needed to recover.

But Thomas, 42, told his sister “it’s all lies” after learning he would be sent back to prison without a release date once his mental health improved.

He is one of 233 prisoners serving Public Protection (IPP) sentences who have been transferred to secure units, in many cases because the hopeless nature of imprisonment has left them deeply hurt.

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Open-ended prison sentences were abolished in 2012, but not retroactively; Almost 2,500 people have already been sentenced to indefinite imprisonment. At least 94 people committed suicide after losing hope of being released from prison.

A senior doctor who treats IPPs has warned that the government could take the lives of more people into its hands unless it acts to end the scandal.

Last year two medical reports revealed the impact of devastating imprisonment in the IPP on Thomas’s mental health, warning that “prolonged imprisonment” created “insurmountable obstacles” to his recovery.

Now Mr. White’s sister and two other families are appealing for their loved ones to remain in hospital until they are ready to rejoin the community.

“If he goes back to prison, we’re back to square one,” said the Rev. Clara White. Independent. “Again. I think it’s going to deteriorate very quickly. And I think it’s going to get worse on the journey from the hospital to the prison.”

Roddy Russell, whose brother Rob was hospitalized twice after being crippled for 16 years, said: “What they’re doing, in my view, is giving these prisoners back to their abusers.”

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Rob was sentenced to a minimum IPP of two years and 177 days in 2009 for threatening to kill his former partner.

Ashamed of his brother’s crime, Roddy lost contact with Rob for several years but was eventually called to visit him by worried prison officers at HMP Bullingdon.

The IPP quickly deteriorated after he realized his prison sentence meant he would not be released after completing his minimum tariff. When Roddy arrived at the prison, his brother was unrecognizable and “catatonic.”

“He was just skin and bones,” Roddy recalled. “He was bearded, greasy, unkempt, disheveled. I couldn’t hold a coherent conversation with him at all.

“I left the visit and walked out and burst into tears because I didn’t recognize my own brother, he had almost fallen into a catatonic state.”

Rob was transferred to a low-security hospital unit in Gloucester; There he was put on a special diet to gain weight and had to have dental surgery after his teeth were left to rot.

His physical condition was so bad that doctors considered amputating his foot due to an untreated toenail inflammation.

However, as his mental health improved and he began to take better care of himself, he was sent straight back to prison, where he cut off contact with staff.

Instead of working towards his release, he was sent back, this time to a higher security mental health unit in Somerset.

“He went from a low-security hospital back to prison,” Roddy added. “He’s in a medium-security hospital right now. That tells you that the prison system made him worse.”

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Abdullahi Suleiman remains in custody, 20 years after he was sentenced to IPP for a laptop robbery in a Cardiff park in 2005. In total, he was detained for almost 18 years; He was released and recalled five times, although he was not convicted of any other crime.

His case is being investigated by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention after his wife and activists filed a major complaint.

Lawyers found him “psychologically disturbed, disorganized and delusional” at HMP Swaleside in scandal-hit Kent; The prison inspector here issued an urgent warning to the government this week, warning of a “widespread sense of hopelessness”.

He had been kept in isolation for about eight months when he was transferred to a secure hospital in September, his wife, Bernadette Emerson, said.

He described the 41-year-old, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder before his incarceration but whose condition worsened in prison, as frail, weak and “on the verge of death” before being transferred.

He fears that if he goes back to prison he will “go straight into psychosis” and says: Independent: “He was suicidal in prison. This will break him. It will actually break him mentally.”

Successive governments have rejected advice to resentence the remaining IPP prisoners. But Ms Emerson, who founded the IPP Solidarity Movement, believes there is no hope if the government sticks to the revamped IPP Action Plan, which she says is the only way prisoners can move towards release.

“It’s basically rebranding the IPP phrase with a different name,” he added. “This does the same thing that IPP used to do.”

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Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Callum Ross, a committee member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, has worked with many patients serving IPP sentences at Broadmoor Hospital, a high-security psychiatric facility in Berkshire.

He is the UN special rapporteur on torture, Dr. Alice agrees with Jill Edwards’ harsh assessment that prison amounts to “psychological torture.”

He often finds that treating a patient, only to be sent back to prison with an unjust imprisonment, creates a conflict between patient and practitioner.

he said Independent: “How do you motivate someone to participate in hospital treatment if the outcome of that is to make their return to prison easier?”

Dr Ross fears more IPPs will end up in detention if the government does not address the scandal.

“I think what’s important here is hope, or rather despair,” he added. “And I think the loss of hope contributes to demoralization, and I think that’s what’s behind the rising suicide rate.”

The expert backed proposals put forward by the Howard League for Sentencing Reform last year to give all remaining IPP prisoners a release date within two years of their next parole hearing.

He also called for all IPP prisoners to be given a mental health support package on release to take into account the psychological harm caused by imprisonment.

He believes that everyone who has been sentenced should be given aftercare that can help with housing, health and education as they rejoin society.

A Prison Service spokesman said: “It is true that IPP sentences have been abolished.

“All IPP prisoners receiving treatment under the Mental Health Act receive aftercare when they leave hospital, whether returning to prison or rejoining the community.

“This support prepares them to cope with life outside hospital and reduces the risk of their mental health deteriorating.”