Anyone convicted of a crime in the UK, or being held on remand pending trial, will not be able to avail themselves of the full extent of the rights currently on the law books, or protected by the European Court of Human Rights. However, this does not mean that they become sub-human or less deserving of respect and dignity than anyone else, it just means that they are subject to certain restrictions.
If you believe your rights have been violated while serving your sentence, you can describe what happened using our free Rights Situation Checker.
Allocation
Upon arrival in prison you will be searched for any items that are not permitted in the prison, such as weapons or drugs etc. Any cash that you are holding will be confiscated and placed into a special account for your use. This may all seem a bit harsh but you need to bear in mind that the prison system is not designed to be a holiday-camp, recent headlines notwithstanding.
Each prisoner is required, as part of their time in Prison, to abide by the rules laid down by the Prison Act 1952 and also to any rules or regulations that cover that particular establishment.
Once you have been searched and assessed you will be allocated a certain category based, in part, on your offence and on your behaviour. The basic regime has the strictest rules and fewer privileges than its more favourable counterparts (the standard or enhanced). Also, again dependant on your particular offence, you may be immediately segregated from the rest of the prison population. Many critics of the prison system would say that this is not necessary; that all prisoners should be together and whatever happens; happens. This would be a breach of one of the most fundamental human rights; protection of the body and respect for dignity.
Describe what has happened and find out which UK human rights protections apply and what you can do.
Try our Rights Situation Checker free, here on this site →Contact with Family
It is a breach of the Prison Act to deny a prisoner the ability to contact his family and loved ones. Therefore card or PIN telephones are available in all prisons however, for security purposes, all calls are taped except those to legal counsel, the Samaritans or other similar organisations. In some cases, as a punishment, the Governor may restrict phone use although this is in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.
In addition to phone rights the Prisoners also have the right to send two letters to loved ones; one ‘statutory’ letter and one ‘privilege’ letter. The privilege letter can be stopped as a punishment but the statutory one cannot. All letters coming from inmates of High-security prisons and Category A offenders will be read and possibly censored. This also covers letters to legal counsel, although this is just intended as a measure to ensure that it is actually legal in nature and not a ploy intended to assist the inmate in breaking the rules or committing further offences.
In addition the Governor of the prison, no matter which category, has the power to send back letters sent to inmates if they are too long or if there are too many arriving. This may be a breach of personal freedom but this must be offset with the need to keep order in the prison system.
Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.
Restrictions
Make no mistake, no matter what your crime, you will be subject to the Prison Rules while you are a ‘guest of the state’, however many of your basic rights are unchanged. You still have the right to food, protection from assault and access to the courts. What you lose are your civil right to vote and your right to personal freedom, among others.
What we have at the present are basic needs being met in the form of food, housing, work, education, protection and acknowledgement of the family unit. The law is still developing in this area and it may be that further rights are introduced as the law changes; it may also be that rights are removed by necessity or for security reasons. Whether the Rules past, present and future can stand up to the scrutiny of the European Court of Human Rights is a matter for the Prisoners groups and the Lawmakers but the prison system is its own society and therefore any proposals for change in this area will be the subject of intense debate.
My husband is also locked up for 24 hours a day. He hasn’t seen his children in 6 months.
How can the prison system keep them in isolation for so long? When will they listen? When enough people start harming themselves?
My son put in a Comp 1 and Comp 2 but has had no response other than his CM saying the prison knows it’s a very bad mistake to make and a report has been written. He was asked if he wanted to change prisons, my son said no, he’s ‘settled’ if you ever can be and knows who and who not to talk to.
What’s his next step? Where does his next complaint go to and what is the best he can expect?
. They are on 24 hour bang up due to coivid have meals brought to cell, no exercise and little to no health care checks. Hes had no family visits for 14 months now and get no idea of what is going on re his status.
I understand completely that there are exceptional circumstances but surely if this is the way things are going to be for the foreseeable future then every day life has to be reassessed and adjusted for all concerned?
It is now 11pm my son has not received any ointments or antibiotics.
His wounds started to burst and pus oozes out of them,it itches terribly!.Nobody responds to his requests. How can I help him. My heart breaks.
Most people would have been up in A&E by this point. My friend has geared herself up to never seeing her son again or even possibly donating a kidney to him at Christmas. Nobody deserves to be left untreated health wise. If anybody has ever heard of anxiety being the cause of blood in the stools or urine then please show me the evidence!!!
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