Mum’s anguish over son’s ‘endless’ prison sentence

The mother of a prisoner, who is still in jail 18 years after being given a "cruel and unjust" indefinite prison term, is calling for MPs to back a bill to resentence all 2,734 prisoners in his situation who are still behind bars.

James Lawrence, 37, from Southampton, was given an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence in 2006 for threatening someone with a fake gun.

His mother, Mandy Lawrence, said: "My son has seen murderers come in and murderers go home again, and he's not a murderer. It's ridiculous."

The Ministry of Justice has rejected the idea of resentencing in the interests of "public protection".

Although IPP sentences have since been abolished and Lawrence's minimum term was just eight months, he has no idea when or if he will be released on parole.

"He feels despair, I know that," said his mother, as she described what led to him being sent to prison when he was 19 years old.

Lawrence pleaded guilty to two offences - one of assault and another of possessing an imitation gun with intent to cause fear and violence.

Miss Lawrence said he had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, after nearly being stabbed to death in Southampton a year earlier.

She explained: "It was 2005 when he got stabbed... and it affected him mentally and this is why he had this starting pistol. He wouldn't have done anything with it.

"I picked him up. There was this fight in the street. Three people kicking one person, so James got out and he was going, 'leave him alone', and then they started on him.

"Then he got this imitation pistol out. I thought, 'oh my god'. I couldn't speak. But he didn't deserve an IPP for that."

Lawrence has been released on parole five times but has been recalled every time - for being late back to a hostel, for going on the run and on other occasions because he got drunk or took drugs.

His mother said he had recently told her it had felt as if there was "no end in sight" because of strict post-parole licensing rules, hence "falling back into old behaviours".

He has struggled with addiction and like many other IPP prisoners who have lost hope, his mental health is a constant worry for his family.

So far, 90 IPP prisoners have taken their own lives.

Earlier this year at HMP Erlstoke in Wiltshire, Lawrence too tried to kill himself and it was not the first time.

Miss Lawrence said: "It's horrible - the stress of not knowing if your son's going to die.

"What I want to happen is to resentence all IPPs, starting with the lowest tariffs, because otherwise they've got no justice, no voice and it would ease up prison spaces."

In a statement, a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "It is right that IPP sentences were abolished and we recently terminated the lifetime licences of 1,800 rehabilitated offenders.

“We are now exploring ways to improve access to mental health support and rehabilitation for those still in custody.

“However, with public protection our first priority, we will not be pursuing a resentencing exercise.”

Shirley Debono, from family campaign group IPP Committee in Action, said by taking resentencing off the table, the government was "causing more harm" to already vulnerable prisoners.

"There'll be more suicides," she said. "There'll be more self-harm and the risk of more violence as they have their hopes slashed away from them."

The IPP sentence was introduced by the then Labour government in 2005 and scrapped in 2012 over human rights concerns, but not retrospectively.

Criminal justice experts and politicians have criticised IPPs as being "cruel, unjust and damaging".

The latest attempt to address the "injustice" of the legislation is a Private Members' (Resentencing) Bill introduced by Lord Woodley in September.

Its second reading is due to take place in the House of Lords on 15 November.