Press Release: APPEAL calls for urgent release of prisoners to prevent life sentences turning into death sentences
Press Release – APPEAL – 18th March 2020
Criminal justice charities are calling for the government to urgently release a proportion of the prison population to protect them from the current public health crisis. Legal non-profit APPEAL has said that prisons are high-risk environments for the rapid spread of Covid-19 – and that this could be a death sentence for many, including victims of miscarriages of justice.
The Lord Chief Justice’s announcement yesterday that no new Crown Court trials will take place in England and Wales if they are expected to last longer than three days has been met with relief from lawyers but despair in prisons. People on remand currently make up one in 10 people in prison (11%) – the majority of whom are awaiting trial. More than half (54%) of those on remand awaiting trial are accused of non-violent offences.
A crisis waiting to happen – overcrowded, understaffed and highly vulnerable to infection
The Prison Officers Association has confirmed that nationally 113 staff and 75 prisoners are currently in isolation after showing symptoms of the virus. The data on our prisons paints a grim picture of what may lie in store:
The UK has the highest rate of imprisonment in western Europe.
England has a rapidly ageing prison population
15% of the English prison population have respiratory conditions
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales 2018-19 annual report raised concerns that 10 of the 35 adult male prisons failed to meet the minimum standards of infection control compliance and cleanliness.
The cost of getting this wrong
As we have seen in Italy, measures to tackle the virus resulted in 12 deaths (mostly drug overdoses) as a result of prison riots when restrictions on prisoners’ ability to communicate with their family were imposed with no alternatives.
Family visits and frequent telephone contact is a vital lifeline for prisoners. For many prisoners without phones in their cells, lockdowns from inevitable staff shortages caused by Covid-19 will mean greatly reduced contact with the outside world. Greater use of lockdown and segregation will likely impact prisoners’ access to exercise facilities, outdoor space, and showers. Self-harm and suicide are already prevalent in our prisons.
A call for action
APPEAL is calling on the Government to take the following common-sense steps:
1. Allow temporary or early release for the following populations:
· Prisoners convicted of non-violent offences whose appeal applications have passed the single judge screening stage (via bail)
· Prisoners on remand charged with non-violent offences
· Prisoners aged over 70
· Prisoners with pre-existing serious health conditions, including heart or lung disease, diabetes, immunosuppressed prisoners who are suffering from cancer, HIV, or autoimmune diseases
· Pregnant women prisoners
· Prisoners in Mother and Baby units
· All prisoners in Category D minimum security open prisons with staff deployed to other prisons to boost capacity
2. Make provisions for better contact between prisoners and the outside world, including:
· Allowing all prisoners to make phone calls to family and legal teams without charge
· Providing a confidential email service for communications between lawyers and their imprisoned clients
· Providing a system for video link facilities in prisons to be accessed via lawyers from home rather than from court
3. Make significant emergency improvements to the healthcare facilities available in the prison estate including implementing effective testing and quarantine measures
Emily Bolton, Director of APPEAL, said:
“In this country, a prison sentence is supposed to be a deprivation of liberty; not a death sentence. Prisoners are part of families and our community, and those families and communities are desperate worried about their loved ones behind bars.”
Katie Campbell, wife of one of APPEAL’s prisoner clients, David Pinto, said:
“My husband is in prison at HMP Swaleside. That place can't even facilitate family visits properly- can you imagine them trying to manage the Coronavirus outbreak? My son has been sent home from school with symptoms, so I am off work looking after him. This means none of the children can see their dad for who knows how long. The phone is a lifeline, but how long can we afford the calls with me not working?”
ENDS
Notes to editors
APPEAL is a law charity that fights miscarriages of justice and demands reform of our justice system. www.appeal.org.uk
The majority of APPEAL’s clients are in custody.
Director, Emily Bolton and Katie Campbell, prisoner’s wife, are available for interview.
For further information please contact: mail@appeal.org.uk