Member

Why is it such an injustice? First, we are perpetuating the mistake and the fallacy that underlay the bringing in of this sentence in respect of the cohort that is either in jail or subject to licence. Secondly, we accept that if an offence very similar or almost identical—in so far as offences can be almost identical—to those for which these people are in prison or remain subject to the sentence was committed either before April 2005 or committed and sentenced after December 2012, they would have been given determinate sentences, and we accept the risk that goes with that. Why are we continuing to treat these people differently? They are also subject—I will turn to this in a little more detail in a moment—to the extraordinarily unjust licence regime, which has not had enough focus. Again, we see it as unjust because, apart from keeping people in prison, it is positively harming their mental well-being.