Government failings 'may give freedom to dangerous prisoners'

The High Court has already decided that the detention of prisoners who have little chance to prove their suitability for release is unlawful.

Judges last month ordered the release of two inmates who were held in a prison with no facilities to prepare for a parole board hearing, but stayed the ruling until the Secretary of State for Justice had a chance to take the case to the Court of Appeal.

Today Mr Justice Collins ordered that a third prisoner should be released, again staying his ruling until the case could be heard by the same appeal court at a hearing he said should take place as soon as possible.

Brett James was sentenced to Imprisonment for Public Protection in 2005 - an indeterminate sentence - when he was 19, for causing grievous bodily harm.

He was ordered to serve a minimum term of one year and 295 days, which expired in July.

He would then have been eligible for release if he could demonstrate to the Parole Board that he was unlikely to pose a further danger to the public.

But the Doncaster prison where he is being held does not have the necessary facilities to gather the evidence or provide courses.

The judge said: "Because of the failings of the Government, a fairly large number of IPP prisoners are likely to be released if the Court of Appeal finds the detention is unlawful. This is very worrying."

He added: "It must be recognised that that the consequences are truly disastrous because I think it is inevitable that short-term lifers will have to be released whether or not they remain a risk to the public."

Mr Justice Collins said a previous hearing involving other IPP prisoners had found that the Justice Minister had acted unlawfully in failing to provide the necessary courses and resources, and had failed to follow what Parliament intended when it introduced the legislation.

At that hearing, Lord Justice Laws, sitting with Mr Justice Mitting, said: "To the extent that the prisoner remains incarcerated after tariff expiry without any current and effective assessment of the danger he does or does not pose, his detention cannot in reason be justified. It is therefore unlawful."

The judges granted a declaration that Justice Secretary Jack Straw "has acted unlawfully by failing to provide for measures to enable prisoners serving IPP sentences to demonstrate to the Parole Board, by the end of their minimum term, that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public for them to be confined".

The Government was granted a stay on the ruling pending an appeal which is likely to be heard early in October.

IPP sentences were introduced by then Home Secretary David Blunkett in 2005 to deal with violent and sex offenders.

More than 3,000 offenders have received such sentences in just two years and campaigners claim the policy has fuelled the prisons overcrowding crisis.