Your Rights as a Prisoner or Detainee

The word ‘detainee’ tends to evoke media pictures of inmates at Guantanamo Bay or remind us of articles about supposed secret internment camps for terrorists and suspected terrorists. In a sense this is correct and, for the purpose of this article, I will assume this as the meaning and also include prisoners held in UK prisons on ‘remand’, i.e. being held pending trial.

Do Suspected Criminals Have Rights?

Of course they do. They are members of the human race, this great big family that we call ‘people’. They are entitled to share in the same protection that the rest of enjoy. They may have to suffer curtailment of certain rights, such as personal liberty and the right to vote, but they are still afforded the protection of the Human Rights Act, the European Convention on Human Rights and the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights.

What About Terrorists?

Yes, they have rights in exactly the same way; they still have freedom of speech. The fact that we do not condone or agree with their methods does not mean that our laws do not allow them to express their opinion; as a democratic society we just don’t want them to shatter lives and cause wide-scale slaughter. Their continued detention is the cause of much wide-spread debate; is it lawful to detain someone for years at a time? The US Supreme Court and, I would suspect, the European Court would say absolutely not, however the sovereign states have the power to curtail the rights of these people for the sake of national security.

Treatment in Detention

The Courts must have a solid reason for holding people in Prison without trial, there must be a clear danger that the person in question will re-offend, attempt to intimidate witnesses or abscond and try to avoid standing trial altogether. However, and for whatever the reason, the people being held must be afforded as much personal freedom as is reasonably practical and they tend not to be subject to as much restriction as convicted inmates; for instance, there is no restriction on contact with family and friends via letter or phone.

Just as with convicted prisoners, the people being held on remand or detained for other reasons, be they mental health reasons or while awaiting a decision on immigration, must be afforded the protection from harm that is their right. They cannot be discriminated against by virtue of their race, colour, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or political views. If prisoners are charged with a crime that is sexual in nature, they must also be segregated for their own protection.

The Basic Point is This...

Every human being, be they prisoner, detainee, terrorist or asylum seeker has the basic human right to be treated with dignity and respect. They have the right to food, housing, protection, education and assistance from the law. They have the right not to be exploited, tortured or intimidated. As a country we have agreed to abide by the European Convention on Human Rights, as a nation we have the Human Rights Act to protect us from those who would seek to harm us or prevent us from enjoying our civil liberties.