The forgotten Two Strikers

This is a letter from one of the lost and forgotten prisoners. In 1999, I was sentenced to a Two Strike life sentence with a tariff of four years and six months. I remember the judge saying that his hands were tied due to the new sentencing policy which a Labour government invented to win voters. That this sentence doesn’t mean I’d spend the rest of my life in prison, just that the licence would be for life.

Yet, here I am, 28 years later, lost in the prison system and forgotten by the powers that be. Labour keeps saying they inherited this broken prison system, but the truth is they also helped to create it. Mr Blunkett says these Two Strike and IPP life sentences were big mistakes, yet nothing has been done about the Two Strike part.

They brought out all these new rules regarding IPPs, the early release for recalls who hadn’t committed another crime, but not a single thing has been done for Two Strikers, even though our sentence was invented and abolished before IPP was even thought of. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m pleased that they’ve done something for the IPPs, because these sentences are barbaric and mental torture for the people serving them. Six IPPs have had their sentence overturned and resentenced, and I’m surprised this hasn’t been done for everyone already. Because that’s what has been done to two strikers. But we weren’t told about it or taken back to court. No, just now classed as mandatory life as 

We used to be classed as Two Strikers, then automatic lifers, then it was indeterminate-sentenced prisoners. Now it’s just lifers. We are no different to mandatory lifers in the prison system. You tell the probation or prison staff that you’re a Two Strike life sentence prisoner and they look at you like you’ve run over the cat and you’ve lost your mind. Most of them weren’t in the prison service, or even born, when our sentence existed.

There are no progression boards for us, no end to our licence, not a single thing in those new rules for Two Strikers to put an end to this inhumane sentence. We get recalled for a minor breach of licence conditions and we spend years back in prison. We are literally just lost and forgotten in this system, and it feels like they’re making space to keep us away for longer. I read in the December issue that Noel Smith was invited to a debate about IPPs and Two Strikers. It said we are not forgotten. But I’ve got to tell you, it sure feels like it. And it’s certainly now gone all quiet again now that they’ve changed the rules for the IPPs.

Surely the government should have sorted out their first mistake first, instead of just sweeping the Two Strike sentence under the carpet and forgetting about it. Fix the first mistakes before you keep coming up with other ideas. As for the Parole Board? You wait well over the knockback time before you get your next hearing. Sometimes years over. Now you have to have a paper board that always says send to an oral hearing. That’s another year added on, so an 18-month knockback ends up being three years.

When will something be done for Two Strikers? I’m not looking for compensation; I just want to end this barbaric sentence. Remember we are still here in your system.