Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing.
A father who has spent 18 years in jail after being given an eight-month sentence still doesn’t know when he’ll be free.
James Lawrence was given an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) jail sentence back in 2006. He received an eight-month minimum term for threatening someone with a starting pistol when he was 20.
At the time, he told the court he was carrying the imitation gun for protection after he was stabbed in the same area a year earlier.
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But having served 25 times his original sentence, it’s believed the 38-year-old is one of the UK’s longest over-tariff IPP prisoners.
These IPP sentences were scrapped back in 2012 amid human rights concerns, but it didn’t apply for those already detained.
His mum Mandy Lawrence told The Independent: “In his time, he’s seen murderers come in and murderers go home.
“It’s tormenting for his family, let alone him. I keep thinking, will I see him properly before I die? I was in my forties when he went in there and now I’m in my sixties. It’s heart wrenching, to be honest.”
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Before doing his eight-months minimum, he needed to spend another four months and 14 days in prison after time served on remand. James also got a 10-month concurrent sentence for assault during an unrelated drunken pub fight.
Campaigners are calling for these IPPs to be properly scrapped as Labour peer Lord Woodley added to the outlet: “Ministers are not yet on the same page when it comes to the resentencing exercise my private member’s bill is proposing.
“But they share my determination to end the scandal of the IPP sentence once and for all. So there is everything to play for.”
He added that James’ case is ‘shocking’. And it’s almost a needle in a haystack as it’s reported that of the 2,734 IPP prisoners still behind bars, more than 700 have served more than 10 years over what their minimum tariff was.
Despite receiving no other convictions, James has been recalled to prison five times for what are said to be ‘minor breaches’ of the strict licence conditions.
On one occasion, he was recalled two months after being freed because he got back to his bail hostel two hours and five minutes past curfew.
Mandy says he’s made multiple attempts on his own life.
“James isn’t a bad person, he was really kind and polite, it just kind of escalated from nowhere. He was a brilliant footballer and went to a school of excellence and it all fell apart and nobody could do anything,” she said.
“I blamed myself for years. And then you worry about the times he’s tried to kill himself, will he try it again?”
Like others, she is calling for the urgent resentencing of remaining IPP prisoners.
LADbible has contacted the Ministry of Justice for a comment.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123.
Jess Battison