A mum whose son has been in jail for 14 years for a phone theft has called on the Prime Minister to set out a clear timetable for his release.
Shaun Lloyd, 38, was jailed for two years and nine months in 2006 but has served more than three times that because he was given an imprisonment for public protection sentence (IPP).
He was recalled to HMP Cardiff weeks ago after an anonymous caller reported him to the police, even though he has committed no further offence.
Andy Burnham pledged over the weekend to ‘end the injustice’ of IPPs and release some inmates serving indefinite sentences during this parliament.
There are more than 2,000 people still serving the open-ended punishments, many for relatively minor crimes such as phone theft.
The Prime Minister said freeing IPP prisoners would secure extra prison space as the government battles an overcrowding crisis.
Shaun’s mum, Shirley Debono, said she was ‘overwhelmed and really grateful’ for Burnham’s decision to let IPP inmates out of jail.
She told : ‘For once a Prime Minister has come along and agreed the sentence is wrong. That has never happened before.
‘The Labour government brought this in, and it is a Labour government that is going to end it.
‘These are people who were found safe to release, by a parole board, but have been taken off the streets and into prison.
‘This is something they would do in Russia and North Korea.’
IPP sentences, which allowed judges to give out sentences with no maximum tariff, were scrapped in 2012 but not retrospectively.
Aged 18, Shaun, from Cardiff, pushed someone to the floor and took their mobile in November 2005. When chased, he stopped and returned the phone.
The victim called the police, and Shaun was sentenced for robbery in 2006.
His co-defendant served less than a year, but Shaun first left prison in 2014.
He has been recalled five times since then, initially because of a drug addiction he developed in jail, serving months and sometimes years behind bars at a time.
He had only been out of prison for four and a half months when he was recalled again after an anonymous phone call to police, which the family says was malicious.
A caller alleged Shaun had strangled her, which she denies happened.
Despite not being arrested, questioned or charged over the allegation, Shaun was recalled to prison indefinitely for failing to immediately report the police visit to his probation officer.
The mum, who founded the IPP Committee In Action, says there are more than 1,000 IPP prisoners like Shaun who have been recalled to prison despite not having committed a further offence.
Ministry of Justice data shows there are also 856 IPP prisoners who have never been released because the Parole Board thought it was not safe to do so.
While ending indefinite sentences will also require new legislation, Shirley is demanding the Prime Minister set out a clear timeframe for when IPP prisoners will walk free.
She said: ‘A lot of these IPP prisoners have mental health problems, all caused by serving an indefinite sentence.
‘If this drags out for months and months, then prisoners are going to start disbelieving the government and think it is a lie.
‘They have been let down so many times over the years. It will all come back to them. That is why we need a timescale.’
As many as 96 people have taken their own lives in custody after losing hope of release.
Currently, an IPP can only be released when a Parole Board is satisfied they no longer need to be confined for public safety.
Shirley says the government should change the law so that a Parole Board would have to prove that prisoners are too dangerous to release, rather than the other way around.
The campaigner believes this would allow more IPP inmates, who have spent years being rehabilitated, to be freed.
On Tuesday, Justice Secretary Alex Norris is expected to update Parliament on plans to narrow the early prisoner release scheme.
This will exclude anyone convicted of manslaughter from being set free early, following a campaign from the family of PC Andrew Harper, whose killers Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers were previously eligible.
However, Burnham has come under criticism for his decision to free IPP prisoners in their place.
Shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy said it means dangerous criminals could still be freed.
Burnham has said he will set up a ‘cross-party oversight group’ to look at how to free IPP prisoners, adding there were ‘still individuals who will pose a risk to communities’.
Shirley insisted her son and many other IPP prisoners are ‘not dangerous people’.
She added: ‘These are people who were found safe to release, by a parole board, and are still in prison today.
‘Most of them committed less serious crimes. These prisoners have not committed another crime.
‘The Conservative government had 14 years to deal with this, but they just watched the view.’
The United Nations condemned the open-ended detention of UK prisoners on IPP sentences in a scathing 16-page document last month.
The Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said it constituted ‘inhumane treatment’ due to the ‘mental anguish of being subjected to continuous uncertainty of a release date’.
The committee examined five men – including Shaun – who have served a combined 87 years behind bars.
The UN argued that all five are entitled to compensation and other reparations as a result of their unjust confinement.
Shirley said her IPP Committee in Action will launch a people’s inquiry into the indefinite sentences.
With ‘high-profile’ judges and other panellists involved, the mum said the inquiry will ‘get to the bottom’ of what happened.
She added: ‘Why have all these people been kept in prison for such a long time? Why are they being recalled all the time for poor behaviour?
‘There is so much that we have to uncover and we will uncover it.’
Alex Davies-Jones, Minister for Victims, Violence Against Women and Girls & International Justice, said this morning that it was ‘the government’s number one priority is to keep the public safe’.
She added: ‘In order to do that we need a functioning criminal justice system.’
The minister also said the government would ensure ‘there is always a prison space available for someone who needs it’.
Davies-Jones insisted that ‘release doesn’t mean freedom’ and there will be a presumption that those released will be on a GPS tag.
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