Ryan H's Story https://nolr.org/ryan-hs-story/

Ryan Higgins https://nolr.org/ryan-higgins/

279 OLRs have been imposed since 2006, but only 24 people have been released, with 8 recalled to prison. Source: www.rma.scot/olr/about-the-olr/ #NOLR #PrisonReform

The OLR violates the basic principles of justice and has no place in Scotland if it wishes to be a fair and progressive country. Want to help? Go to nolr.org/how-you-can-..., where you can find a template letter to your MSP, make a donation or contact us and join us as a member.

'I think an awful lot of this is about the containment of anxiety and I think it makes us feel an awful lot better to have spent thousands of pounds on a snazzy report, it makes us feel better' (Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist) #NOLR #JusticeSystem

When you are on an OLR, the system is so rigid and it is so bureaucratic, it’s not like any other long sentence because it has so many extra layers of bureaucracy, so it is easier being a life sentenced prisoner (Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist) #NOLR

'I think one of the biggest flaws for me is that it's under-resourced, and there isn't enough case managers, there is not enough specialist services' (Policy professional, RMA) #JusticeScot #NOLR

The OLR no's increase and we don’t have the capacity to manage them effectively. Then it impacts on the life population … it was just assumed that we dealt with what was given to us, but the practical application of it was not realised and then it got worse and worse and worse (Prison manager)

''You've got some OLRs that have the tiniest punishment part, you're talking months, up to a few years. So, by the time they access any kind of intervention they are already post tariff...” (Forensic psychologist) #NOLR #JustcieReform

'A lot of what the OLR was about was the preparation of the risk assessment. Nobody needs an assessment, they need the outcome of the assessment to be delivered, too often the assessment becomes an end in itself' (Former member, Parole Board for Scotland) #ScotJustice #NOLR

'He's not motivated to progress with anything. He is too reluctant three years in to have any type of relationship, form peers or get a job because he's like, what's the point? I’ve got an OLR' (Community Justice Social Worker) #NOLR #CommunityJustice

One prisoner said,“I have to accept I’m never gonnae get out of jail, I’m gonnae die in here”. He got an 18-month sentence and was slapped with an OLR and he’s thinking, “I could die in this place”. (Prison Chaplain) #NOLR #CriminalJusticeReform

Today we are drawing on Nicola Ceesay’s forthcoming PhD thesis to highlight the perspectives of practitioners. #NOLR

Want to help? Go to nolr.org/how-you-can-..., where you can find a template letter to your MSP, make a donation or contact us and join us as a member. #NOLR

‘I’ has offered her nephew a home and a family if he was ever to be released. She acknowledges he would be one of the lucky ones. She supports the NOLR Campaign, ‘for ‘J’ and all other young men whom have been handed this inhumane, barbaric sentence’ #NOLR

‘I love ‘J’ dearly and am devastated at how he has been treated by the system, which is supposedly in place to protect vulnerable children and young adults but has badly failed him and traumatized him even further by their handling of his case’ #NOLR

She is proud of how he has dealt with adversity and acknowledges his faults. ‘We have discussed his situation several times and ‘J’ has been very honest and open about what he has done, hasn't done and what he hopes for his future’ #NOLR

'J’ spent his life in care, being physically, sexually and mentally abused. ‘I’ states ‘he was always going to be safer being kept away from his mother and her family’. She respects how he has 'spent those long years in prison reading, learning and bettering himself'. #NOLR

‘I’ worries for her nephew ‘J’ who was 21 when he got an OLR. His punishment tariff was 2 ½ years and he remains in prison after 14 years. Through her own career ‘I’ is aware of research showing that young males' brains are not fully developed into maturity until the age of 25 #NOLR

‘L’ sees his family isolated from others and says it’s is ‘mentally torturing as you have very little to no hope and are constantly facing parole hearings and continuously telling your family outside to have hope but in reality you have no hope yourself of ever getting out’.

His Mum is frustrated by the management of OLR’s. She sees her son’s struggle as those with ‘liberation dates’ take priority. ‘Many SPS staff don’t even seem to understand the OLR. They don’t understand what it’s like to have absolutely no hope at the end of the tunnel’. #NOLR

His Mum feels the professionals involved with her son did not fully realise the consequences of the OLR. One social worker informed ‘L’ that she ‘didn’t expect him to spend that long in prison and was only there to get the help they felt he needed’ #NOLR

He states ‘they have to deal with the ripple effect of you being in prison, probably for life, and you lose friends or have people talking about you or isolate them from their friends or their support network so it is not just us in prison who are suffering.’ #NOLR

‘L’ remains in prison 13 years after receiving an OLR with a punishment tariff of 14 months aged 22. He is aware of the impact his OLR has on his family. He says ‘‘The OLR is inhumane for the prisoner but also for the family’

4. In deciding to support her son she has lost people in her life and feels isolated. She is trying to stay positive for him. He has told her to forget him and get on with her life. He feels his only way of coping is by ‘disengaging and self-harming, which is being used against me’ #NOLR

3. There is help available for her son outside the prison setting and it is being offered for free. Her son cannot progress without this help but he cannot access it. It is frustrating for her to see him suffer. #NOLR

Her son has experienced many traumas in his life, including sexual and physical abuse. He was witness to murders and suicides at a young age and has himself attempted suicide several times. She is struggling to process why he has never received help in prison. #NOLR

‘R’s Mum is struggling to cope since her son’s OLR 16 years ago at the age of 24. His punishment tariff was 4 years and he remains in prison. She has significant mental health issues which have worsened over the years by having to cope with her son’s indeterminate sentence. #NOLR

His sister says ‘it would be a more certain outcome for P if he had committed rape and/or murder. A sentence of life imprisonment would be less cruel than this indefinite detention. It is fair to say he would have a much-improved chance of release one day’

His parents believe they will die of old age before he is released. They are resigned to never seeing their son again. They feel helpless and have run out of words of hope to offer their son, saying they ‘only hope now that he will await his death in prison with dignity’

They say their son’s time in prison is ‘continually being extended by the inability of the Parole Board to reach decisions due to inadequate sentence management by the SPS. Hearings on ‘P’s case have been adjourned more often than not’. They see their son’s distress increase.

2. ‘P’s parents express their doubt in the ability of the SPS to manage the progress of OLR prisoners: ‘We have realised that the Parole Board seems to have no power to manage P’s reviews effectively when the SPS simply fails to produce all the required reports in time for hearings’

‘P’ was sentenced to an OLR with an 18 month punishment tariff 18 years ago, yet remains in prison. His elderly parents have challenged the OLR for years and have written numerous letters to MSP’s. The majority don’t care. Their own MSP feels he has done all he can to help.

Today we’re highlighting the experiences of family members of people on OLRs. They suffer too. #NOLR #PrisonFamilies

Want to help? Go to nolr.org/how-you-can-..., where you can find a template letter to your MSP, make a donation or contact us and join us as a member.

OLRs were designed to provided resource intensive evidence-based and ethical risk management. Failure to adhere to these principles may interfere with human rights, system pressure and failure (Fyfe and Gailey, 2011) #ScotJustice #NOLR

The implications of indeterminate sentencing in a ‘free society’ requires that extraordinary measures be justified, with strong safeguards and due process protections against excessive punishment ‘Magna Carta’ #HumanRights #NOLR

The Vision for Justice states, young people don’t fully develop until their mid-20s and may not understand adult systems and processes, despite this, 38 OLRs have been handed out to people under 25 #NOLR #CYCJ

Without access to rehabilitative opportunities those serving an OLRs are unable to show that they are no longer a risk to the public. Opportunities for rehabilitation must be offered to be competent within the framework of the ECHR #NOLR #HumanRights

The UN Special Rapporteur for Torture stated in 2023, indeterminate sentences create “levels of pain or suffering beyond those inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions. Yet, the Scottish Government persists in handing out the OLR #NOLR #HumanRights

The RMA states ‘assessors should be mindful that evaluating long term risk poses several challenges due to limitations in relation to reliability of future predictions’. Despite this, risk assessments are used to detain people in Scotland indeterminately #NOLR #ScotlandJustice

The RMAs Standards and Guidelines state that ‘Research [shows] that... services that are humane, ethical and clinically relevant and [based on] principles of risk, need and responsivity can reduce rates of offending, while punitive approaches have little effect’. The OLR is as punitive as it gets.

Lord Carloway has stated ‘it is essential the OLR does not become an unjustified form of preventative detention’ adding ‘the period spent in the community will be an integral part of the sentence’. Despite this, only 24 people have been released from prison in 19 years of OLR’s.

The Chair of the Scottish Human Right’s Commission states “OLRs raise significant Human Rights implications for people serving these sentences”. At what point will the Scottish Government acknowledge the OLR is not fit for purpose? #NOLR #SentencingReform