Life Imprisonment

An Unofficial Guide

Baker, Alan, Newell, Tim

• Publisher: Waterside Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781908162366
• Topic: Crescita personale
• Subtopic: Miglioramento personale

**Winner of a Koestler Trust Silver Award*** and the only book of its kind by a serving lifer. Contains a Foreword by Tim Newell, former Prison Governor life-sentence expert. A snapshot of the most severe sentence available in the UK which treats key topics in 40 easy to read sections.Alan Baker's personal selection and treatment of topics of concern to life-sentenced prisoners looks at subjects across the life-sentence regime. Ranging from the realisation which 'kicks in' after being sentenced in the dock—shock, numbness, hopelessness—to the intrinsic nature of long-term imprisonment, it is an explanatory handbook and survivor's guide. Life Imprisonment looks at aspects of long-term imprisonment from inside the head of a lifer: daily preoccupations, the uncertainty about when he or she will be released, the long years ahead, time for reflection, work towards release, setbacks and coping mechanisms and staying out of trouble. It tells about how a life sentence leads to risk assessments, courses, reports, psychological tests and possibly a period in a therapeutic community and/or a resettlement prison. To this first-hand knowledge, Alan Baker adds his thoughts on the state of the prisons, having experienced first-hand the impact that the justice system has on have on someone serving a sentence with no fixed end date. The result is a book packed with useful information as well as an insider's perspective on the major concerns of life-sentenced prisoners, whether about their sentence, future, their victims or the (often greatly magnified) minutiae of prison life.'A hard-hitting set of survival notes from someone writing with great experience of having walked the walk. It is grounded in reality … Alan Baker writes with sound practical advice and insight which is not for the feint-hearted. He takes prison seriously, recognising it as the place you don't want to be': Tim Newell (From the Foreword).Alan Baker has spent over 20 years in prison (despite a tariff of just nine years) having received a discretionary life-sentence for the attempted murder of another prisoner. He has spent time in some 30 prisons and youth custody centres (as they were known when he was a younger man) and experienced maximum security segregation several times. He received a Koestler Trust Silver Award for the manuscript of Life Imprisonment: An Unofficial Guide.

1 After Sentence

After you receive your sentence, your prisoner category will be decided (see below) and you will usually, at first, be returned to the prison where you spent your remand time. Exceptions to this are when it has been decided that you should be awarded Category-A status. You will then be transferred to a local (allocation) prison able to house Category-A prisoners.

On the day that you get your life-sentence it is normal to feel a variety of different emotions. Shock, despair, anger, confusion, shame and remorse are not uncommon. Any of these emotions, singly or together, could lead to depression without adequate support. The prison healthcare arrangements will be familiar with how you are feeling and are trained to give you support and treatment, if necessary, to assist you through this difficult stage of your sentence.

Listeners (prisoners trained by the Samaritans) are also available to provide support to those in distress. If you feel that you need this kind of support, ask prison staff for a Listener.

You may be feeling that you have let yourself, and/or your family down. This is normal, and it is healthy to acknowledge these feelings. However, at this stage of your sentence, you need to focus on your immediate needs, as you begin to plan how, and where, you will complete your sentence.

You may remain in your local or allocation prison for some months, before it is decided where you will be transferred to serve the first stage of your sentence. This move will depend on two things:

• your prisoner category (below); and
• the offending behaviour courses that it is felt you need to complete (there are references to such courses throughout this book, see especially Section 35, and also your sentence plan).

Prisoner Categories: A Short Note

Category A: Those whose escape would be highly dangerous to the public or national security. Offences that may result in consideration for Category A include: murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, wounding, rape, robbery, firearms offences, importing or supplying Class A drugs, terrorism and those under the Official Secrets Act.

Category B: Those who do not require maximum security, but for whom escape needs to be made very difficult.

Category C: Those who cannot be trusted in open conditions but who are unlikely to try to escape.

Category D: Those who can be reasonably trusted not to try to escape, and are given the privilege of an open prison.

The Incentives and Earned Privileges Scheme (IEPS)

The IEPS determines which prisoners enjoy privileges such as additional visits, jobs that earn money, or extra money, in-cell TV, etc. There are three levels: Basic, Standard and Enhanced; each giving different benefits. Prisoners start on Standard Level and gain or lose status based on their progress and behaviour inside prison (see also Section 28 ). There are government moves against progression simply for ‘staying out of trouble’.

2 Stages of an Indeterminate Sentence

A life-sentence is made up of a number of stages.

• Stage 1 This is when you are first allocated to a prison (other than a local prison) to serve your sentence. A sentence plan will be put together, which should take into consideration any offending behaviour courses that you need to complete in order to lower your risk, together with any mental health issues, and any educational needs that you may have. This first stage usually lasts a few years and is dependent on the length of your tariff.
• Stage 2 During this stage you would be expected to have addressed your offending behaviour, improved your educational and vocational (work) skills and progressed to a Category-C prison. At this stage, a prisoner should hopefully have received some recommendations that they be transferred to an open (Category D) prison to complete the final stage of their sentence. The recommendations most valued by the Parole Board are those from the prisoner’s offender manager and psychologist.
• Stage 3 The prisoner at this stage will be in a Category-D prison (or a Category-D resettlement prison), the difference being that a Category-D prison holds those not deemed dangerous enough to be housed in a closed prison, but who are not yet necessarily safe to be released, whilst at a Category-D resettlement prison, such as Blantyre House, the emphasis is on resettlement back into society. Some prisoners have been held in Category-D prisons for many years. Some are too old or too ill to be tested in work placements in the community (which is what happens at resettlement prisons), while others are disabled and unable to find a hostel placement which is able to provide for their needs or licence requirements. In an ideal world, you will have completed this final stage before your tariff (see next section) date expires, and you look forward to your release.

3 Tariffs

Although some life-sentenced prisoners may have their tariff date set in open court, others may have to wait, possibly for up to a year. Either way the tariff is nowadays set by the trial judge (it used to be set by the Secretary of State). It is important to realise that this tariff date is in no way a release date. If you had received a determinate sentence instead of a life-sentence (or imprisonment for public protection (IPP)¹) that determinate sentence would be similar to the length of the tariff.

The tariff is the punishment part of the life-sentence. If it is considered that you no longer pose a risk to the public, it is possible, but unlikely, that you could be released soon after your tariff date. If you receive a tariff date of, say, five years and have been recommended to complete offending behaviour courses which are offered in different prisons, you could serve well over your tariff date, just waiting for a place on a course. Unfortunately, the waiting lists are always long, so the sooner you put your name down for one, the better.

Not only is it important to complete as many courses as possible before your tariff date, but you must also fully engage in these courses, be an active participant and complete the ‘homework’ satisfactorily, before moving on to do another course.

Prisoners can challenge the length of their tariff by contacting a solicitor and submitting an appeal to the Secretary of State. Few prisoners have their life tariff reduced, since the Secretary of State is likely to support the decision made by the trial judge. It is possible for a prisoner to challenge a refusal to reduce the tariff once set, if he believes it is too high. Again, he should contact a solicitor as soon as possible.

The Whole Life Tariff

There are a number of life-sentenced prisoners with a whole life tariff. This means that the Parole Board or the Secretary of State for Justice will never consider them for release. Although a whole life tariff is usually given to people who have committed extremely serious or heinous crimes (I think that there may be others who have committed equally serious crimes which might have justified a whole life tariff, yet did not receive one).

The amount of press coverage given to the crime can play a massive part when the prisoner’s tariff is decided. This could be seen as unfair. Two people may commit seemingly identical crimes, yet the offender whose crime attracts more media coverage will usually receive a longer tariff than the one whose case went relatively unreported.

A number of whole life prisoners have been trying to challenge their tariff in the European Court of Human Rights, in the hope that pressure will be put on the UK justice system to scrap whole life tariffs and give all lifers the chance to be at least considered for release, if or when it is eventually deemed safe for them to be released.

1 In respect of those prisoners to whom this sentence still applies. There are prisoners whose offences occurred before abolition who are still serving, or who may yet still receive this variety of indeterminate sentence.

4 Parole — Paper Reviews

There was a time when a prisoner serving an indeterminate sentence (life or IPP)² actually got to see the Parole Board (i.e. one of its panels) when their parole date arrived. It appears that nowadays a paper review is often held, where the prisoner does not get to put their case to the Parole Board in person. If you think that you may have a paper review, ensure that your solicitor forwards all information on the progress you have made to the...