Thousands of prisoners are being inhumanely held in prisons like HMP Cardiff (Photo: WikipediaCommons)
The mainstream media was in a frenzy this week over Labour’s plan to release 5,000 prisoners in England and Wales before the end of their sentences.
They claimed that Labour is “too soft” after justice secretary Alex Norris announced the move to deal with the “prison capacity crisis”.
But Labour is only too good at locking people up in a prison system that brutalises—and throwing away the key.
This includes Abdullahi Suleman from Cardiff, who stole a laptop at the age of 22. In 2005 he was handed an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) order under Tony Blair’s Labour government—he remains in prison to this day.
The Blair government introduced IPP sentences in 2003 as a right wing publicity stunt to prove it was “tough on crime”. People deemed “a significant risk of causing serious harm to the public” could be imprisoned indefinitely or recalled to prison at any time.
Abdullahi’s partner, Bernadette, told Socialist Worker it is “devastating” and “an insult to us” that IPPs aren’t eligible for early release.
The IPP sentence was scrapped in 2012, but they weren’t banned retrospectively. This means that over 2,300 people remain behind bars under IPP orders—many having been sentenced for minor crimes such as petty theft.
More than two-thirds of those still in prison have been detained for ten years or more past their original sentence.
The Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention last month concluded that there was no legal basis in international law for the prisoners’ continued “arbitrary” detention.
The report accused the British government of presiding over a form of psychological torture. It came after campaigners highlighted the case of five men who have served a combined total of 84 years under IPP orders.
Abdullahi’s parole review was suspended because of psychiatric hospitalisation—a move the working group said amounted to disability discrimination.
“My husband has experienced three human rights violations by the British government under international law while serving an IPP sentence,” Bernadette said.
She explained the mental and psychological toll of these indefinite sentences. “Keeping them locked up has had an enormous impact—it’s broken my husband,” Berdanette said.
Abdullahi’s health declined after 2018. He sustained skull fractures after an incident with police officers—but did not receive a brain scan until two years later. This revealed that his cranium bone had fused incorrectly.
“I had such bad anxiety,” Berdanette explained. “I couldn’t sleep because I could see his symptoms were getting worse, but the prison prevented him from accessing the treatment he needed.
“It’s one of the wickedest things I’ve ever encountered.”
The working group report determined that IPP sentences “prolonged uncertainty and cause serious psychological deterioration among prisoners, including an increased risk of self-harm and suicide”.
As of March 2025, 94 people on IPP sentences had killed themselves in prison.
Bernadette said, “IPP inmates are given no certainty, repetitively going through the same old cycle.”
She said that the IPP action plan “is incapable of addressing the harm that the detention itself causes to people”.
And she explained that the action plan, which determines whether inmates are safe for release through completing courses, takes its toll on mental health.
Prime minister Andy Burnham has promised a review of IPP prisoners in the last week—but Bernadette wants action now. “I don’t trust the government—reviewing is not the same as releasing,” she said.
“I think the government wants IPP prisoners to die off. They want to keep what they have done a secret and out of the public eye.
“I think they don’t want to have to pay the compensation and reparations that the United Nation is recommending, so they’re avoiding accountability.
“But that’s why, as a family member, you’ve got to fight. You’ve got to keep campaigning against the cruelty and the injustice.”
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