Hope for dad who has spent 12 YEARS in prison for stealing a mobile phone

HOME SECRETARY WHO INTRODUCED PUBLIC PROTECTION SENTENCES HELPS FAMILY WHO HAVE FEARS OVER INMATE’S DECLINING MENTAL HEALTH

- NEAL KEELING

A MAN who has spent 12 years in jail for stealing a mobile phone is being helped by the architect of the controversial sentencing that has kept him behind bars.

Now aged 40, Thomas White from Bury was locked up in 2012 and given an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence, with a minimum of two years, after being convicted of a street robbery in Manchester city centre.

He learned his fate months before such IPP sentences were abolished and over a decade on remains in jail.

Thomas' family say his mental heath has deteriorated dramatically, describing him as being in 'limbo. They believe he should be treated in a psychiatric unit in Prestwich and say he's developed various conditions behind bars, including PTSD and schizophrenia.

The father-of-one is one of 2,852 people behind bars serving an IPP sentence. Figures published by the government in January revealed that of those 2,852 people, 1,227 haven't been released. Of those, 699 57 per cent are more than 10 years beyond their original sentence.

Between 2005 and 2013, 8,711 people in England and Wales were handed an IPP sentence. They were introduced by Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett - now Lord Blunkett - in 2005.

They were scrapped in 2012 on the back of a European Court ruling. Top judges said they breached human rights, on the grounds that prisons had failed to provide inmates access to the rehabilitation courses required to demonstrate to the Parole Board they were safe to be released.

But the abolition wasn't retrospective so today, even though more and more IPP prisoners are being released, hundreds are still locked up.

Now Lord Blunkett has met Thomas' sister, Clara, and pledged to help get him moved out of prison.