By Amy-Clare Martin
Copyright independent
Thomas White, a father serving an abolished Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence, has been transferred to a specialist mental health hospital after 13 years in prison.
White developed paranoid schizophrenia and psychosis during his incarceration, having been jailed for stealing a phone, and previously set himself alight in his cell.
His sister, Reverend Clara White, campaigned for his transfer, stating he told her he “would have died in prison” without it.
IPP sentences were abolished in 2012 but not retrospectively, leaving nearly 2,500 people still incarcerated, with almost 700 serving at least 10 years beyond their minimum term.
Despite calls from the justice committee and the UN, successive governments have refused to re-sentence IPP prisoners, with Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe recently joining calls for action.
