Andrew Sperling

Goodbye Ozzy. Very glad you got to experience the best of send-offs.

Here you are, singing from on high, courtesy of the very wonderful @coldwarsteve.bsky.social

Goodbye Brian. You lit up the world.

Legal aid hack: data from hundreds of thousands of people accessed, says MoJ Data including criminal records downloaded in ‘significant’ cyber-attack at Legal Aid Agency in April, ministry confirms

Quite unusual to see a civil servant explicitly blaming the last government:

“This data breach was made possible by the long years of neglect and mismanagement of the justice system under the last government….”

www.theguardian.com/law/2025/may...

Had an excellent morning running laps at HMP Brixton for @prtuk.bsky.social with @sperls.bsky.social and residents.

There is still time to leave our fundraising on a nice satisfying round number...

justgiving.com/page/thebrix...

#medalmonday Two fifty milers down for 2025. Three to go!

Next up though is half marathon at HMP Brixton for @prtuk.bsky.social

This will be @sperls.bsky.social first half and we are only £55 away from our target. Can you help? ☺️
justgiving.com/page/thebrix...

The state alleging that someone is a criminal is not a justification for denying them due process, it’s what creates the need for it.

A half marathon is a marathon to me. I’m a short bloke who has never run that far.

I am less keen on the endless loops. This will be further than I have ever run before (unlike Emma who basically runs the earth most weeks).

Any donation, however small (or large) will be very welcome.

Please also suggest a suitably themed song for our combined running playlist…

Congratulations to @laurajanes.bsky.social for her appointment as the new Chair of @prisonlawyersapl.bsky.social. Pretty disgraceful that it has taken over 15 years to get the first female Chair of APL but Laura always has been a trailblazer.

They are nearly all refusals to allow an oral hearing. There is very clear Supreme Court authority on this which is why they lose nearly all of these. They take a neutral position on these and as a result waste lots of court time and money. They should be paying the costs of these applications.

Interesting to see Mr Yaxley-Lennon aka Tommy Robinson is a recent convert to the idea of human rights.

The article 3 claim was quite ambitious.

If anyone wants an enjoyable lunchtime read and can tell me how I attach a file on here I’ll happily post the judgment

I am less keen on the endless loops. This will be further than I have ever run before (unlike Emma who basically runs the earth most weeks).

Any donation, however small (or large) will be very welcome.

Please also suggest a suitably themed song for our combined running playlist…

Abolished indefinite prison sentences still in place - despite prisoner numbers approaching pre-release scheme levels Imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences were introduced in 2005 and abolished in 2012. But the law wasn't backdated, so thousands are still behind bars.

This is another perspective on recalls. My brilliant colleague Catherine was interviewed for this piece about her client, Andy, who talks about being a ghost for two decades:
news.sky.com/story/ive-be...

These are cases in which people have been returned to prison without any kind of judicial oversight. They are recalled administratively by the probation service. Several probation officers misapply the legal test and recall unnecessarily. This has a significant impact on the prison population

Alarm over early re-release of recalled prisoners as jail overcrowding crisis deepens Whistleblower says over 1,000 inmates in England and Wales considered for the scheme which bypasses Parole Board

There is much more to this story than the ‘alarm’ angle and the perspective of the unidentified probation officer. This new policy is actually delaying Parole Board reviews because there is now a backlog of cases awaiting review by MOJ officials.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

YouTube video by TheJamVEVO The Jam - Funeral Pyre

Absolutely gutted about Rick Buckler. His drumming on Funeral Pyre is utterly magnificent. Check this out

m.youtube.com/watch?v=Endq...

The Long, Long Road to Freedom This month marked an important milestone for a few hundred people serving IPP (imprisonment for public protection) sentences who have been released from prison and are on licence in the community. A c...

This week was an important one for some people serving IPP sentences. Blog post

The ultimate narcissist has succeeded in having everyone talk about, write about, read about and listen about him day in and day out. His ratings are GREAT.

For those who continue to deny that Trump and the MAGA GOP's objection to asylum-seekers and refugees isn't racist, check out which group, out of all the conflicts on earth, Trump has made a very special refugee resettlement for.

Yep.

White South Africans. Beyond parody.

This month marks two years since he was released again.

We have made submissions to the Parole Board arguing that his sentence should finally come to an end.

His nightmare may soon be over.

For hundreds and hundreds of others, the pain and trauma of the IPP sentence carries on.

ENDS

He was recalled to prison less than a week later.

It took 15 months for the Parole Board to review his case. When they finally arranged a hearing for him, they concluded that he should never have been recalled in the first place.

Some of our clients are now waiting anxiously to hear if they will finally be freed from this wretched sentence.

One of these was sentenced 20 years ago in the first wave of IPP sentences. His tariff (minimum term) was less than two years. He served over 16 years before his first release.

This week the Ministry of Justice has begun referring hundreds of IPP cases to the Parole Board for consideration of termination of their licence. Instead of waiting 10 years for this opportunity, IPP prisoners now have their cases referred to the Parole Board three years after their first release

My colleague Emma has written about Matthew Price - for whom the change in the law came too late.

www.sl5legal.co.uk/single-post/...

The threat of and reality of recall can be devastating for IPP prisoners. It can prevent them getting on with their lives. For some, the torment of this can be intolerable. Matthew Price was one of these.

Recalled prisoners usually have to wait many months for their detention to be reviewed by the Parole Board. The Justice Select Committee reported on the shocking delays to these reviews over two years ago. Things have not really improved since then.

committees.parliament.uk/publications...

Although it involves people losing their liberty, recall to prison is not a judicial decision - it is an administrative process. It is activated by the Probation Service and effectively rubber-stamped by civil servants in the Ministry of Justice.

People are recalled for breaches of licence. This does not mean that they have reoffended. It can be that they have missed curfews or supervision appointments, relapsed into substance abuse, lost their accommodation.

The IPP sentence is indefinite - it can last forever. Despite the fact that an IPP prisoner may have been released from custody, they remain at risk of being recalled to prison at any time.