Before you go any further I can’t tell you if he’s saved yet, it’s still work in progress but the drowning man is my partner Rob, an IPP prisoner sentenced to 1 year and 288 days in 2008.
I’m Sara, his partner, mother to his children and venturing into this world of blogging to share our journey, to try and show you the human cost of custody for everyone involved and hopefully help any others along the way.
Well that's how it started out but now after speaking with so many people it's taken on a bit more of a role. I want to use this site as a forum for the stories of others trapped in this nightmare and to raise awareness around the many campaigns and ways in which people can support us in influencing the change retrospectively for those that carry the IPP sentence today.
Some families though don't have the opportunity of another board to prepare for, as not surprisingly the impact on their loved ones mental health can take the darkest of paths. Self harm amongst IPP prisoners is disproportionally higher than other prisoners and that means that the sentence and the hopeless nature of it has lead to many giving up and taking their own lives, for the families left behind the torture continues in a way we can only imagine and pray never happens to us.
Rob is currently in custody, recalled in November 2018 and sentenced to a 6-week sentence of December of that year. That sentence expired just before Christmas 2018 but to date as i write this in July 2020 Rob is over 20 months in custody, thats more than 88 weeks, 14,817 hours or 880,044 minutes from a 6 week sentence. That is only going to rise s Rob is unlikely to be released this year, possibly not next year either.
In that time our baby girl has been born, she's now one and has a very limited relationship with her dad.
We are the lucky ones though, some families don't have the opportunity of another board to prepare for, as not surprisingly the impact on their loved ones mental health can take the darkest of paths. Self-harm amongst IPP prisoners is disproportionally higher than other prisoners and that means that the sentence and the hopeless nature of it has led to many giving up and taking their own lives, for the families left behind the torture continues in a way we can only imagine, and pray that it never happens to us.
