Physical Health United Kingdom Project #36502

Legal Advice for Older and Disabled Prisoners

by Prisoners' Advice Service

Project Report | Jan 10, 2020
PAS Report 1st October - 31st December 2019

By Sara McCallum | Fundraiser and Communications Officer

Your donations continue to facilitate Prisoners’ Advice Service’s (PAS) work, providing legal and human rights advice and representation to those who are marginalised and neglected within the prison estate.

In the fourth quarter of 2019, we have delivered six targeted Outreach Clinics for older prisoners and prisoners with disabilities and health problems. These have been held at HMPs Pentonville, Thameside, Leyhill, and Eastwood Park. Our Caseworkers have been able to directly advise and support 63 prisoners during these clinics, providing vital direction regarding their legal and human rights.

In this period, your support has allowed us to open 26 legal cases on behalf of prisoners in the UK who are experiencing unfair treatment. Two of these directly relate to the mistreatment of prisoners suffering from a disability. We have answered over 410 phone-calls from prisoners, and around 40% of our calls tend to be from prisoners who identify as disabled or suffering from a health problem.

The following case studies elucidate on just a few of our successes, which wouldn’t have been possible without the generous contributions of donors.

Case Study 1: PAS advises an elderly prisoner who was the victim of an unprovoked attack

During one of our Outreach sessions within a prison, an older prisoner met with us and told us that he had been assaulted by a prison officer in an unprovoked attack.

He was unsure of how to make a complaint and worried that it might have repercussions on his future safety. Our PAS Advisor explained to him that he could submit a confidential access complaint to the Governor, which he did.

We also wrote a letter to the prison Governor, on his behalf, calling for the prison to investigate this alleged assault.

We were pleased to find out that justice has been served and the officer has been sacked.

Case Study 2: PAS ensures a prisoner with HIV receives his treatment

A prisoner called our advice line urgently, concerned about his health and even his life, as he had not received the daily medication he needs to treat his HIV for the past four days.

Our Caseworker immediately rang the prison and managed to get hold of someone from the Safer Custody Team, who are responsible for ensuring that prisons are safe places, including suicide prevention and self-harm management. He promised to pass on our worries to the prisoner’s Houseblock Healthcare Nurse.

He also wrote a letter directly to Healthcare stating that it was a very serious matter with potential severe consequences for prisoner D.

Happily, several days later, we received a letter from prisoner D confirming that he had received his medication.

Conclusion

PAS is most thankful for the generosity of GlobalGiving, and the willingness of its donors to support an often neglected cause. We rely on the kindness of donors to uphold human rights within the prison estate, and PAS wouldn’t be able to continue its vital work without such donations.

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Oct 28, 2019
PAS Report 1 July to 30 September 2019

By Geof Jarvis | Head of Fundraising and Communications

Delivery of Outreach Clinics for Older and Disabled Prisoners

Since our last report, your kind donations have continued to help us to maintain our outreach services for older and disabled prisoners across England and Wales.

Working with Older and Disabled Prisoners

Over the third quarter of 2019, your support helped support our Community Care Caseworker to deliver three Outreach Clinics in three prisons: HMPs Thameside and Wandsworth, both in London. During these clinics, our Caseworkers held 34 one-to-one meetings with individual older and/or disabled prisoners.

Your support also helped our Caseworkers to open five new cases on behalf of older and/or disabled prisoners between the beginning of July and the end of September.

43% of calls to our telephone Advice Line between July and September came from prisoners who self-identified as suffering from health issues or disabilities. 24% came from prisoners over the age of 51.

Case Study: PAS Helps Woman Prisoner Suffering Significant Mental Illness

PAS helped Prisoner A, a woman in her late 50s, who had been convicted of two counts of manslaughter and one of arson and had received an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence with a minimum tariff of eight years (meaning that she could be retained in custody after her sentence had been served). The prisoner committed her crimes in order to fund her drug addiction, which began at eight years old as a result of the abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother. She had no history of violence or arson offences, but set fire to a chair in her flat, which then spread, killing two of her neighbours.

Prisoner A suffered from significant mental illness, which was undiagnosed at the time of the offence. She had previously been sectioned but was released without treatment or support. She also suffered from cognitive difficulties, functioning in the Extremely Low and Borderline Range. Illiterate when she entered prison eight years ago, she is now able to read and write a little.

The prisoner had become eligible for parole, and wanted to request a transfer to open prison conditions rather than release, which would have been unlikely, due to the IPP nature of her sentence. The psychiatrist who assessed her for the purposes of parole concurred that she had been let down by mental health services and that she was not being appropriately treated at the time of the offence, going so far as to suggest that, had she been receiving treatment, it might not have occurred.

PAS represented Prisoner A at her parole review, requesting that she be transferred to open conditions. Due to enduring mental illness and illiteracy, she found it very hard to understand, and remember, the parole process, which made taking instructions from her difficult. These also meant that PAS could not communicate with her by letter. Our Women Prisoners’ Caseworker visited Prisoner A regularly – more frequently than is usual – and arranged telephone calls throughout the process to ensure that she understood what was happening.

During her minimum tariff, Prisoner A’s illiteracy had meant that she wasn’t able to engage in any offender behaviour courses, to which the Parole Board attach great weight. PAS was able to persuade the board that this should not pertain in this instance, and that to keep her in closed conditions now would amount to punishment for low levels of intellect and cognitive ability.

As a result of our intervention, the Parole Board recommended that Prisoner A be transferred to open conditions, which would be required in order to convince the board to ultimately release her. PAS continued to assist the prisoner to ensure she was able to access the support she needed whilst in open conditions in order to progress to her eventual release.

In Conclusion

Prisoners’ Advice Service remains most grateful to GlobalGIving for helping to support our work with older and disabled prisoners in England and Wales. Without the assistance of donations from individuals such as yourself, the work that we do with vulnerable prisoners would be severely curtailed.

Links:

PAS Website

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Aug 2, 2019
Updated GlobalGiving Report 1 April 2019 to 30 Jun

By Geof Jarvis | Updated GlobalGiving Report 1 April 2019 to 30 Jun

Elderly prisoners at HMP Littelhey

Updated GlobalGiving Report 1 April 2019 to 30 June 2019

Delivery of Outreach Clinics for Older and Disabled Prisoners
Since our last report, your kind donations have continued to help us to maintain our outreach services for older and disabled prisoners across England and Wales.

Working with Older and Disabled Prisoners
Over the second quarter of 2019, your support helped support our Community Care Caseworker to deliver four Outreach Clinics in three prisons: HMPs Pentonville and Thameside, both in London, and Lewes in East Sussex. During these clinics, our Caseworkers held 42 one-to-one meetings with individual older and/or disabled prisoners.

Your support also helped our Caseworkers to open four new cases on behalf of older and/or disabled prisoners between the beginning of January and the end of March.

Our telephone Advice Line received 48 calls from prisoners over the age of 50 and 72 from prisoners who considered themselves be a person with health issues / disabilities.

Case Study
Prisoner A, who was sentenced for 42 months for benefit fraud, was de-categorised two months ago to Category D (low risk).

He was therefore told that he would be transferred to an ‘open’ prison, which is less restrictive and would aid his rehabilitation back into society.

However, when the prisoner transfer vehicle arrived to move him, he was told by officers that he could not board due to his wheelchair.

He called our advice line and spoke to one of our community care caseworkers, who put pressure on the prison to make reasonable adjustments for his disability and provide suitably modified transport for his transfer.

Happily, Prisoner A rang us this week to say that the prison had promised to find a modified vehicle for his transfer and the prison wrote to us to confirm that the transfer has now taken place.

In Conclusion
Prisoners’ Advice Service remains most grateful to GlobalGIving for helping to support our work with older and disabled prisoners in England and Wales. Without the assistance of donations from individuals such as yourself, the work that we do with vulnerable prisoners would be severely curtailed.

Links:

For more news, visit our website here.

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