Prisoner kills himself after 17 years into 23-month sentence

[pellinore]

A coroner has blasted the “inhumane and indefensible” treatment of a prisoner who took his own life after serving 17 years for a 23-month jail term.

Scott Rider, 45, who was one of Britain’s longest-serving inmates, was given an indefinite sentence in 2005 but ended up never being released.

The controversial Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences – in which offenders were handed minimum jail terms but no maximum – were scrapped in 2012 amid human rights concerns, but not for those already sentenced, leaving thousands languishing in jail for years beyond their original prison terms.

‘Indefensible’: Coroner blasts indefinite jail terms after prisoner’s suicide 17 years into 23 month sentence | The Independent (archive.ph)

Edited April 28 by pellinore