Sixteen years for stealing a flower pot: the film about the IPP jail sentence ‘designed to bury you alive’

‘Is there any point in getting up every day and trying where in reality I think I’m going to die in prison?’ … Britain's Forgotten Prisoners.‘Is there any point in getting up every day and trying where in reality I think I’m going to die in prison?’ … Britain's Forgotten Prisoners.

IPP was introduced in 2003 by a Labour government determined to show it was tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. Prisoners were given a tariff but most have been jailed way beyond that, with no sense of when they would be freed. Indeed, it came to be regarded as so tough that it was abolished in 2012 after the European Court of Human Rights declared it violated Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights; the right to liberty and security.

Ronnie Sinclair served 16 years in jail on a three-year IPP tariff for stealing a flower pot at the age of 17 His mother is the heroic Shirley Debono who has been fighting for Shaun and all IPP prisoners for 15 years, currently with thecampaign group. Shirley’s daughter Lisa died at six weeks and we see her visiting her grave. However painful Lisa’s death remains for her, she says it cannot compare with the grief she has experienced losing Shaun. “I want him back,” she says heartbreakingly.

Righting those wrongs would mean resentencing IPP prisoners. Those who have served more than their tariff would be released, while the few who haven’t would be given a determinate sentence for their index crime. Last year the justice select committee recommended all IPP prisoners be resentenced. Read, who grew up in London on a tough council estate, related to the people he met. Most, he says, were similar to him: working class, unrooted and unqualified. He left home at 16 and found himself homeless. He then did manual labour on the railways, made pop videos and tried to break into the film world without success. Despite having no qualifications, in his 30s he was accepted on to a degree course in documentary making at Newport University and graduated with a first.

Source: Entertainment Trends (entertainmenttrends.net)

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