Trapped: The IPP Prisoner Scandal

This is a recap of Trapped, Episodes 17- 22. Playlist: 0:00 The opening of Trapped Ep. 17: A Poisoned Chalice features archive of Lord Tony Woodley addressing the Lord’s Chamber about the IPP scandal. Our host, Roddy Russell introduces himself as someone whose brother Rob is serving an IPP sentence and the purpose of this episode in which he meets Lord Woodley to find out more about the Priva...

Joe Outlaw’s trial, an update on Aaron Graham’s story and a landmark complaint to the United Nations.   Roddy Russell travels to Middlesbrough to follow the trial of Joe Outlaw in July 2025, an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) prisoner whose rooftop protests at HMP Manchester and HMP Franklin has brought renewed attention to one of the most controversial sentences in UK legal history....

Former Justice Secretary, Alex Chalk KC, and retired judges, Sir John Saunders and Simon Tonking, speak candidly about the IPP scandal.   Alex Chalk, who served as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice until 2024, speaks about the moral and political complexity of IPPs, calling imposing the sentence “almost totalitarian”, a phrase that would have been politically explosive while...

An update on Thomas Whites’s story and his sister Clara gets ordained as a minister at Church on the Street.   In this episode we hear from Clara White, who updates us on her brother Thomas, who was sentenced in 2012 for the theft of a mobile phone. Thomas was given an IPP sentence with a two-year tariff and has now been imprisoned for over a decade. We last heard from them in our very first...

The IPP campaign in the spotlight: campaigners stage a protest outside Parliament, while inside, Lord Thomas backs new recommendations to end IPPs. The Trapped team report on two new IPP campaigns: one inside and one outside of Westminster, during the Summer of 2025. On 18th July 2025, the TikTok campaign group injustice_of_ipp staged a demonstration outside Parliament. Protesters and former priso...

An update on Victoria’s story. Plus the Prison and Probation Ombudsman, Adrian Usher, Chief Executive of the Howard League, Andrea Coomber, and leading barrister Dr. Felicity Gerry KC, speak about their work to end the IPP Scandal. We last heard from Victoria in Episode 9 ‘Set Up to Fail’ where she’s known as Madison, because she didn’t want to give away her identity. Victoria is currently serving...

Roddy Russell meets Lord Tony Woodley and former Prison Chaplain, David Kirk Beedon, who are both campaigning against indeterminate sentences. First, we must pass on some heartbreaking news about Josh McRae, whose story we featured in Trapped Episode 16. Josh tragically died at HMP Long Lartin, aged 34 in September 2024. An inquest into the cause of his death is ongoing. Rest in peace, Josh McRae....

Theresa and Josh’s story, plus Roddy Russell meets the Anglican Bishop for HM Prisons and delivers a letter of protest to 10 Downing St.   Today we hear from Theresa, whose son Josh has been serving an IPP sentence since he was 18. Josh was sentenced to an IPP in 2008 for GBH, he’s now 34. When Sam meets Theresa in May 2024, Josh is still recovering from his recent set-back with the parole bo...

An exclusive interview with Martin Jones CBE, appointed His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Probation in March 2024. Prior to that, he was Chief Executive of the Parole Board from 2015. Sam meets Martin Jones at the MOJ building, 102 Petty France, Westminster in July 2024 to discuss the IPP scandal in the shadow of the looming prisons crisis. It had been a big week for criminal justice: the new...

Rob and Sara’s story. Sam investigates the impact of recall on IPP prisoners in the community. Change is finally coming - how will it affect them?    Rob was given an IPP sentence in 2008 and he’s been recalled back to prison 4 times since then. His partner Sara is a campaigner with UNGRIPP, The United Group for Reform of IPP: they met through the work she was doing. Sam meets them...

Mary and Martin Myer’s story. We also hear from two people who head up their unions, working with IPP prisoners on the front line: the prison officers and prisoner governors. Martin Myers comes from an Irish Traveller family. They’re a minority group in the UK, often discriminated against. On the 8th March 2006, Martin was given an IPP sentence with a tariff of 19 months and 27 days. Apart from on...

Wayne Bell’s story, plus Sam speaks to Dr Alice Edwards, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture about her intervention in the campaign for IPP justice.   Today Sam travels to Manchester to speak to Alana Bell, whose brother Wayne Bell was sentenced to an IPP sentence with a 2 year tariff in 2007 for assaulting someone and stealing their bike. He was 17. Wayne is now 34: he’s spent his entire adult...

The inside story of the measures being taken by members of the House of Lords for IPP prisoners in the parliamentary Victims and Prisoner's Bill.   We join Sam on 11th March 2024, three months after the inquest of Matthew Price, an IPP prisoner on license who took his own life, and one day before the Victims and Prisoner's bill committee stage in the House of Lords. The two are linked because...

The IPP sentence has created a sense of hopelessness amongst prisoners, leading to poor mental health, self-harm and numerous suicides, so we are asking ‘what does hope look like’ for IPP serving prisoners?   Sam asks this question to some of the many people who are campaigning to bring an end to this grievous injustice: including Andrea Coomber, from the Howard League for Penal Reform; Richa...

Nicole and Madison's stories and the tragic tale of how and why Matthew Price took his own life. Nicole and Madison both served Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences. Now out on licence, Sam meets these two women in Parliament, whilst trying to lobby their MPs. She hears about life inside female prisons and how they are both doing now. As of December 2022, there were 40 women in custo...

What's life like for IPP prisoners on licence? Mark Conway and Andrew Morris both describe it as ‘walking on eggshells’. Mark Conway intervened in the terror attack at London Bridge in 2019, tackling Usman Khan who was subsequently shot dead by armed police. Mark's first call was to his parole officer because he was worried he might get recalled to prison for breaching his licence conditions.&nbsp...

How IH fought and won the legal appeal against his DPP sentence. IH is one of the few people who has successfully appealed against his DPP sentence. DPP stands for ‘Detention for Public Protection’, it works just like IPPs, but it was given to people who were under the age of 18 at the time of their conviction. IH served a DPP sentence for 16 years before he won his appeal. He was represented by F...

Bernadette and Abdulahi's story, plus Sam explores mental health treatment for IPPs and the now controversial Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) pathway. Sam travels to Cardiff to meet Bernadette, whose husband Abdulahi received an IPP sentence in 2005. His original tariff was two years and he has been recalled back to prison four times. Abdulahi was born in Somalia and moved to the UK as a child...

Donna and Tommy’s story and why so many IPP serving prisoners have taken their own lives. Tommy Nicol was serving an IPP sentence for robbery and when his tariff expired and he still wasn’t released from prison, he took his own life. Tommy is just one of many: the total number of IPP serving prisoners who had taken their own lives by the end of 2022 was 81. Today Sam investigates the human stories...

Roddy and Robert Russell’s story, plus Sam explores why IPP serving prisoners are finding it so hard to get released by the parole board. Roddy Russell first found out what an IPP sentence was in 2011 when his brother, Robert didn't come home after serving 2-and-a-half-year tariff for a threat to kill. The brothers grew up in the Forest of Dean – and Roddy left as soon as he was old enough fo...

Shirley and Shaun’s story, plus Sam digs into the history of the IPP sentence, what has made it such a failure? Shirley Debono has been campaigning against IPPs (Imprisonment for Public Protection) for many years. Her son Shaun Lloyd received an IPP sentence in 2005 for a street robbery of a mobile phone. He is one of the first people to receive an indeterminate IPP sentence and he’s been trapped...

Sam reports on Aaron and Cherrie’s story and the ‘Kafkaesque maze’ of the offending behaviour programmes. Aaron Graham is the longest straight serving IPP prisoner. He's has been in prison for nineteen years without parole on a two-and-a-half-year tariff, and he still doesn’t know when he’s getting out. Aaron’s sister Cherrie Nichol has been campaigning for Aaron and others like him serving t...

What are IPPs sentences and why are they so destructive?   It's the 27th of April 2023. We join reporter Sam Asumadu as she takes us back to the time when she first heard about IPPs (Imprisonment for Public Protection) sentences during a meeting with Shirley Debono, who’s been campaigning for justice for IPPs since her son Shaun received an IPP sentence for a street robbery without violence.&...

Podcast series charting the UK #IPP prisoner scandal. Listen on #Acast #ApplePodcasts #Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.  Today there are nearly 2,500 people trapped in British prisons on the now abolished indeterminate IPP (Imprisonment for Public Protection) sentence, many for minor crimes like stealing a mobile phone. None of them know when they are getting out, or whether th...