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Britain’s first IPP prisoner to make a public bid for freedom from an indefinite prison sentence has been “disappeared” and fears he will never be released after refusing a devastating parole.
Nicholas Bidar was left devastated and “humiliated” when a Parole Board panel refused to recommend his release or move to open conditions earlier this year.
The 36-year-old was sentenced to a controversial prison term for public protection (IPP) with a minimum tariff of eight years for a series of robberies and using a gun to resist the arrest of a 20-year-old in 2008.
But 16 years later, he is still being held in a maximum security Category A prison with no release date.
To raise awareness of his plight, he applied to become the first IPP prisoner to hold a parole hearing in public after new laws came into effect to increase the transparency of parole decisions.
Ahead of the landmark hearing in March, Mr. Bidar said The Independent how the reality of the uncertain sentence affected him, and added: “Every day is like torture. I struggle every day to finish the day.”
He insisted his status as a high-risk Category A prisoner had left him a “political prisoner” after the 2021 parole review recommended that he progress to open conditions, but this was blocked by the secretary of state for justice, who refused to budge. they.
In the latest refusal, the Parole Board admitted his Category A status was “interfering” with his progress in prison and asked for this to be reviewed. But six months later, no such review has happened.
Now his family say they have lost the man they are now and they have given up hope of ever being released from maximum security HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire.
“He has withdrawn a lot,” a family spokesman said The Independentadding “no progress” on categorization.
“He stopped thinking, ‘I’m going to come home at some point’, and now he’s not going to come home. It’s not happening. It’s his mindset – nobody’s going to help him.
“They called us the other day, we had a prison video call. They just said what’s the point of me waking up again?
“It’s hard to hear. He committed a crime and deserves to go to jail because it was wrong.
“It’s hard when they see people walk out the door. Some of these people have committed sexual crimes or potentially killed people, and they’re there because of crimes they committed when they were 20 years old.
IPP prison terms were introduced by New Labor in 2005 and saw offenders given the minimum but not the maximum rate. They were removed in 2012 due to human rights concerns, but not for those who had been detained.
Of the 2,734 remaining IPP prisoners without a release date, more than 700 have served more than 10 years longer than the minimum rate.
The government is under increasing pressure to crack down after at least 90 inmates have committed suicide under what the UN has labeled “psychological torture”.
Mr Bidar admitted that his wrongdoing was serious – including the further attacks he carried out in prison and the time he escaped from custody – admitting “I was wrong”.
But he insisted he had finalized his sentencing plan and told parole board members: “I’m not that person anymore.”
Mr. Bidar’s family fears that without hope of release, he will only end up in prison. He also supported a private member’s bill tabled last month for all outstanding IPP prisoners to be acquitted.
“If they stay until they’re 40 or 45, it’s not going to get any better,” he said. “They will never learn again.
“He’s just going to break down. Keeping him now won’t do anything. It’s causing IPP inmates like him mental health problems.
The family said conditions in the maximum security prison were poor – Mr Bidar spent 23 hours a day in a cell with only a bucket as a toilet. Recent water contamination issues have caused him to throw up in the same bucket for weeks, he added.
“What they’ve been doing has been going on for a long time,” he said. “He’s young, stupid. But he just made the wrong choice and I just need one chance.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “It is true that IPP sentences are being thrown out. We are shortening the license period significantly for some rehabilitated offenders and supporting those who are still serving their sentences.
“Decisions on prisoner categorization are regularly reviewed and the Prison Service carries out a full risk assessment to determine the appropriate security category for each prisoner, based on the risk of escape, harm to the public, and prison security and control.”
