The European Court of Human Rights is set to rule later on whether indeterminate prison sentences in England and Wales are lawful.
Three convicted criminals say their human rights were breached because they were stuck on a waiting list for rehabilitation courses.
The courses assessed whether prisoners given indefinite sentences were safe to be released.
Indeterminate sentences have been reformed to reduce their use.
In 2005, the three men in the case were given indeterminate imprisonment for public protection, known as IPPs.
These sentences were introduced two years earlier for offenders who ministers said needed to be held until it was clear that they were no longer a threat, even if that meant holding them for longer than the years specified by a judge, known as the tariff.
But in the three cases before the Strasbourg court, the men said they could not get on to the courses to show they had changed.
Brett James was jailed for two years for unlawful wounding with intent. He had a series of convictions for violent offences going back to the age of 17.
James completed some courses in prison but could not get a place on important anger management and substance abuse programmes. The Parole Board ruled he could not be released because he had not completed all the assessments required to make a proper judgement of his character.
The other two men, Nicholas Wells and Jeffrey Lee, said they had similar experiences after their jailings for serious violent offences. The three cases eventually went to the Law Lords, which ruled against the men.
In their appeal to the European Court, the three argued that the government had breached their right to liberty by failing to put them on courses that would allow the Parole Board to assess their progress.
IPPs have been used to indefinitely detain serious offenders including violent criminals and even people convicted of terrorism offences. There are 6,000 IPP prisoners in England and Wales, representing 7% of the total jail population. The figure has continued to rise year-on-year, although the rate has slowed since changes to limit how it is used.
Most of the IPPs were given tariffs of 6 years or less and 1,200 had a tariff of less than 2 years. Six out of 10 of the prisoners have served the years specified in their tariff.
Parliament recently abolished IPPs and replaced them with a system of longer sentences for some offenders coupled with extensive supervision and monitoring after release.
18 Sep, 2012
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Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19630617#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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