A senior coroner has been sentenced to indefinite prison after condemning the “inhumane” and “indefensible” treatment of a man who killed himself over 17 years. Milton Keynes senior coroner Tom Osborne said Scott Rider gave up hope of being released before committing suicide at HMP Woodhill in June 2022.
He was serving an public protection (IPP) sentence after being convicted of causing grievous bodily harm in 2005. The minimum term of the sentence was 23 months but there was no end date.
Days before he died, Rider told a prison employee that he had lost hope of being released. He said it was “disgusting” that he was still in prison, that his crime did not warrant an eternal sentence and that the IPP sentence had ruined his life. “He did wrong things and deserved to be punished, but he didn’t deserve this,” said his sister, Michelle Mahon.
Osborne, who is leading the investigation into Rider’s death, has written to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) calling for a review of all prisoners serving IPP sentences.
The controversial penalty was introduced in 2005 and abolished in 2012 following widespread criticism. However, it was not abolished retroactively and today nearly 3000 people who were given BES remain in prison. The sentences have no end date and prisoners are kept in custody until they prove they do not pose a risk.
Many of those on IPPs were convicted of low-level crimes such as theft, including one person who served 12 years in prison after stealing a mobile phone. Even if IPP inmates are released, they remain on license with the threat of reactivation of the sentence at any time.
In a report to prevent future deaths sent to prisons minister Edward Argar, Osborne warned more people could die unless urgent action was taken. He said he was told by the Woodhill governor that he believed the IPPs were “indefensible” and that he and his fellow governors would welcome an intervention.
He wrote of Rider’s case: “It must be concluded that his treatment was inhumane and indefensible and that there is a risk of further deaths occurring unless action is taken to review all prisoners sentenced to IPP.”
Rider’s sister said the sentence “robbed her brother of the chance to start a family and turn his life around.”
He said his brother was a “golden boy” growing up, but he began using drugs in his teens and racked up convictions for crimes including burglary and theft.
In 2003, Rider was jailed for attacking their father. He was later released and, Mahon said, began to get his life together and find a girlfriend. However, in 2005, while still on license for a previous offence, he was arrested again after assaulting a colleague and sentenced to an IPP with a minimum of 23 months duty.
Mahon, a nurse from Durham from whom he had become estranged, only learned after his death that he was serving an IPP sentence. He said he had never heard of them before and was surprised that it meant the length of his sentence was in the hands of the parole board rather than a judge.
He is currently campaigning for the cases of all IPP prisoners to be reviewed. “I do not approve of what Scott did. He committed 47 crimes in 17 years and was convicted of 22 of them. But I think these sentences are inhumane and should be abolished. How can they justify being sentenced to 23 months in prison and then being sentenced to 17 years in prison?” said Mahon.
He said he felt his brother was being punished for breaking with the system. Rider was transferred between prisons numerous times during his 17 and a half years behind bars; treated staff badly; and looked depressed. He was convicted of racially abusing a prison officer in 2018.
In May 2022, he told a prison worker that he felt Woodhill prison was “vile” and that he was “starting to go crazy”. He refused to participate in the parole process. When he died in June 2022, he had isolated himself in his cell for 200 days and stopped showering. The inquest into Rider’s death heard it was common for IPP prisoners to exhibit “challenging behaviour” and they often felt “trapped”.
Mahon said: “How can they justify denying parole just because he woke up in a bad mood on the day he was due to meet the parole board and told them to fuck off? This makes me cry from a mental health standpoint… so why should he be held in prison for this?”
Official figures published last week show that 2,796 people given IPP remain in prison today. Of these, 1,179 were never released and 705 had more than 10 years after their original sentence.
Campaigners have described IPPs as a “death sentence through the back door”. The rate of self-harm among IPP prisoners is more than twice that of the general prison population and, according to the Joint Reform Group, there have been 90 self-harm deaths of prisoners in custody at IPPs since their introduction in April 2005. IPP. The figures do not include suicides in the community.
Wayne Gregory, of Swansea, who is currently serving an IPP sentence, said the sentence “affects every aspect of my life, my physical and mental health and my release from prison”.
Gregory was jailed in 2007 after admitting wounding and common assault and was due to serve less than three years, but remains there today.
Campaigners supporting him say he is “stuck in a cycle” of severe anxiety and self-harm. In one incident, Wayne wrote “IPP killed me” in his own blood on his cell wall. In a letter detailing his situation, he said he wanted to be a voice for IPP prisoners and was optimistic things would change. “I will not remain silent,” he said.
The Ministry of Justice has so far resisted calls to review the cases of existing IPP prisoners. He said 185 IPP prisoners had been released by March 2024, falling by three quarters since the sentences were abolished in 2012.
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But a spokesman said retroactively commutating sentences posed a risk to public safety because it meant “people who have committed serious violent or sexual offences, many of whom have committed serious violent or sexual offences, will leave prison without the supervision and support of parole”, which the parole board has deemed unsafe to release. He must respond to the coroner’s report by May 23.
Richard Garside, director of the Center for Crime and Justice Research, said there was no reason why post-release supervision and support could not be written into legislation for people involved in IPPs. He said it was certainly the case that some had committed serious crimes, but that didn’t mean it was okay for them to “rot in prison years after the date”.
Lord Blunkett, who introduced IPPs when he was home secretary in Tony Blair’s government, also called for reform. He told the Lords in 2021, a year before Rider’s suicide: “I misunderstood. “The government now has a chance to fix this.”
• In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988, chat at 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service is Lifeline 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org.