Unexpected ‘special’ Legal Visits
Kristen Bender, a leading prison law solicitor, contacted Inside Time expressing concern in the way that the National Prison Intelligence Unit (NPIU) dealt with one of her clients in a surprise ‘legal visit’
Kristen Bender, a leading prison law solicitor, contacted Inside Time expressing concern in the way that the National Prison Intelligence Unit (NPIU) dealt with one of her clients in a surprise ‘legal visit’. The NPIU was established in July 2007 to work with prisons to assess and counter the spread of violent extremism in prisons.
Inside Time understands that prisoners are being taken down without prior warning for an unexpected ‘legal visit’, only to find themselves in a room with a couple of police officers and asked a series of questions about their experiences in prison, offending behaviour work and family outside. They are not told how they were selected for interview or who selected them.
It is understood that the purpose of the visit is not being explained to prisoners and they are not told that they do not have to stay or answer the questions. Understandably, prisoners in their ‘parole window’, or perhaps expecting a legal visit, will be particularly confused as, whilst these are called a ‘legal visit’, they are going to be very different to the one they will have been expecting.
In a written reply to Ms Bender of Scott Moncrieff, Harbour and Sinclair Solicitors after she raised her concerns about the treatment of her client in one of these ‘legal visits’, South Yorkshire Police responded stating:
“The Prison Intelligence Unit supports the Prison and Probation Service in providing information and intelligence to help inform control strategies in relation to potential dangerous offenders. The meeting provides a safe environment and an opportunity for the prisoner to discuss welfare issues that may be having an adverse effect on themselves or other inmates in the prison; for example bullying or racism.”
Ms Bender has particular concern about how the NPIU and Prison Service are identifying which prisoners to interview. She has notified the Equality and Human Rights Commission (ECHR) about her concerns. The ECHR has recently won a Judicial Review case involving the treatment of foreign national prisoners by the Prison Service. She is also concerned that prisoners are not given any advance notice or clear purpose to the visit, or how these visits related to the purpose of the NPIU, i.e. bullying, racism or extremism.
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