Thomas White is to be transferred to a secure hospital from Strangeways prison in Manchester after a long campaign, following his arrest aged 27 in 2012 for stealing a mobile phone
A man who has spent 13 years in prison for stealing a mobile phone has finally been released into hospital care after a six-year fight.
Dad-of-one Thomas White, 42, last year set himself on fire and months ago tried to break his own legs in jail as his mental health deteriorated while serving an indefinite term under an abolished law.
White fell victim to the Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) scheme, which was brought in by the last Labour government in 2005 but was later described as “psychological torture” by the UN. It was intended for people considered ‘dangerous’ but whose offence did not merit a life sentence.
Offenders were given a minimum jail term but no maximum and the law was scrapped in 2012 because of human rights concerns. But it was not altered retrospectively, meaning thousands of inmates have remained languishing in jail beyond their original prison terms.
White now suffers with schizophrenia and psychosis, with his family saying doctors attributed his declining mental health to the indefinite sentence. Spearheaded by his sister Clara, a near-decade-long campaign has fought to have him moved to a hospital.
Clara received a phone call on Wednesday notifying her that her younger brother will finally be transferred from HMP Manchester to the specialist medium secure Rothbury unit at Northgate Park in Northumberland.
Two Independent doctors, as was required, agreed he should be moved and the confirmation of the transfer means the Ministry of Justice has now also approved the change.
“I called my mum and my sister and they both cried tears of joy, we all did,” Clara, 43, told the Mirror. “It’s been six years on the battlefield to try and get him moved to a hospital. It’s not yet dropped from my head to my heart.
“Every morning I pray that this will be the day we will hear positive news. Yesterday (Wednesday) morning, my brother was facing the rest of his life in prison, and by the afternoon he was going to be a patient, not a prisoner, any more. I prayed again this morning (Thursday) for good news, before realising we received it yesterday. It’s been such a long, difficult process.”
White, who had previous convictions for theft, was handed an IPP sentence with a two-year tariff for robbery just four months before the sentences were outlawed. Then aged 27, he had been binge-drinking when he took the phone from two Christian missionaries in Manchester.
Clara said her brother started to show signs of schizophrenia in 2016, when he walked around in a bedsheet presenting himself as Jesus. That came, she said, after long periods in segregation where he had only his Bible for company. “It broke him in the end,” said Clara.
Eventually a psychiatrist told the family that his schizophrenia and hallucinations were as a result of his IPP sentence and not knowing when he would be released, Clara said. White has spent the past four months on a hospital ward after he repeatedly smashed his face on the prison wing’s floor, before trying to break his own legs during a psychotic episode.
Clara has been backed in her campaign by Pastor Mick Fleming, a reformed gangster. They say there have been almost 100 suicides of IPP prisoners and more than 300 have died, some from heart attacks and stress-related illnesses, and some from accidental drug overdoses.
While of 2,614 people still incarcerated on an IPP jail term, almost 700 have served at least 10 years longer than their original minimum term. “Some of these men and women have served so long they’ve lost touch with their families,” said Clara.
“We’ve ended up with a human traffic jam with these poor people falling through the net. Thomas was one of 300 inmates with severe mental health problems. There are 299 more Thomas Whites still.”
White has spent his sentence in 13 different prisons, and will be taken in the coming days from HMP Manchester, also known as Strangeways. “He keeps asking me if it’s really true, if it’s really happening, and he’s worrying they’ll take him to HMP Frankland in County Durham instead,” said Clara. “Hope has been stolen from him for that long that he no longer knows what it is.”
Pastor Mick, whose book Walk in My Shoes features Thomas and Carla’s story, said they will now campaign for the other 299 in the same situation as Thomas. “With Thomas we have created a pathway, and now we’re going to go back for the rest,” he said.
After a year-long inquiry in 2022, the Justice Select Committee found the IPP sentences were ‘Irredeemably flawed’ and recommended the government re-sentence all IPP prisoners. The government has since made the decision not to review open-ended prison sentences.
Clara and other campaigners for IPP prisoners, including the group UNGRIPP, are working with MP Sir Bob Neill, chair of the Justice Select Committee, to push a bill through parliament that will ensure all prisoners still on IPP sentences are resentenced, which – given that many have served their minimum tariffs multiple times over – would likely lead to release.
“The eyes are a mirror to the soul,” said Clara. “His eyes tell me how much pain he’s been in. I know this is not a straight release but to know he will be sent to the hospital and has a chance at living, rather than dying in prison, is something to celebrate right now.”