Trapped: The IPP Prisoner Scandal

A Failed Experiment


Listen Later

The IPP campaign under the spotlight.


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 Tik Tok campaign group injustice_of_ipp staged a demonstration outside Parliament. Protesters and former prisoners describe the inhumane impact of indefinite detention, including widespread mental health crises and suicides (95 deaths to date).


Inside Parliament, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, a former senior judge, reflects on how the IPP system was 'a failed experiment', intended to predict dangerousness but resulting in unjust, indefinite punishment. In June, 2025 Lord Thomas and The Howard League for Penal Reform published new recommendations to end the “IPP stain,” arguing that the government’s current IPP Action Plan is ineffective. How will the Prison’s Minister, Lord James Timpson, and the government, react?


Read the Howard League’s 2025 proposals to end the detention of people on IPP sentences: https://howardleague.org/news/expert-working-group-publishes-proposals-to-end-the-detention-of-people-on-ipp-sentences/


Get in touch on X, TikTok, Facebook or Instagram | @Trapped_Pod


For more info about the IPP campaign: visit UNGRIPP | www.ungripp.com | @UNGRIPP | IPP Committee In Action @ActionIpp | injustice_of_ipp


Contributors in order of appearance:


Deborah Ingram, mother of IPP serving prisoner Levi


Roddy Russell, brother of IPP serving prisoner Robert


Stacey Clough, partner of IPP serving prisoner


Andrew Morris, Former IPP prisoner and Trustee of the Howard League


Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales (2013 – 2017)


David Parker, IPP prisoner on licence


Mandy Slade, mother of David Parker


Katie Best, wife of IPP serving prisoner John


Melissa, former prison officer | Off the Cuff with Mel


Andrea Coomber, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform | howardleague.org


Voices in archive:


Lord Daniel Moylan


Lord James Timpson, Minister of State for Prisons, Parole and Probation


Production Credits:


Presenter: Roddy Russell | @1roddyRussell


Executive Producer: Melissa FitzGerald | @Melissafitzg


Producer: Steve Langridge | @SMLANGERS


Consultant: Hank Rossi


An Ear Worm Production for the Institute of Now

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Trapped: The IPP Prisoner ScandalBy The Institute of Now