PPSO 4400, 4410 and 4411 Prisoner communications
We have 3 x Prison Service Order 4400 – Prisoner Communications, Chapters 2, 3 and 4. There appears to be a breakdown in communications in relation to Chapter 1, I haven’t got the foggiest where that is or what happened to it if it ever existed! Then there is Prison Service Order 4410 – Prisoner Communications – Visits, and Prison Service Order 4411 – Prisoner Communications – Correspondence. Last but not least there is Prison Service Order 4470 – Prisoner access to the media. I blame the likes of Noel “Razor” Smith and Ben Gunn for stoking my fires to delve into what is becoming a fascinating subject for further study – ‘prisoner communications’.
In 1812 … “the Lancashire radicals frequently complained of the conditions of confinement; the centre of the debate was the right of prisoners to communicate freely: to send and receive information without censorship, interference or oversight by the gaoler and his staff. Without this right, they argued, the petty corruption and misbehaviour of local officials could never be brought to light and poor prison conditions would never have a permanent remedy” (Prison reform in Lancashire, 1700-1850: a study in local administration by Margaret DeLacy, Manchester University Press, 1986, p. 139).
History was one of my favourite subjects at school. The Human Rights Act 1998, which came into force in October 2000, saw prisoners take a giant leap forward. It enabled me to challenge Standing Order 5 in the High Court and the result being that prisoners now have the right, in certain circumstances, to speak to the media on the telephone. In the June 2009 issue ‘Mailbag’ in Inside Time, “Razor” asked: “As a serving prisoner can I write a blog?” The Ministry of Justice responded: “There is no specific Prison Service policy on prisoners using or posting blogs, as they do not have direct unregulated access to computers or the Internet”. It has long been a principle under English law that if there is no statute or case law which prohibits conduct, then it is allowed.
Ben Gunn started his blog by sending material out to a friend via Royal Mail. When his Governor tried to stop him by citing PSO 4411, like the MoJ did with its response to “Razor”, Ben responded by stating that the MoJ had erred in law because the relevant PSO was not 4411 but instead 4470.
“Razor” rather cynically stated that the MoJ would probably bring out a new rule stopping prisoners from blogging once the question was asked. Given that the MoJ admitted it had no policy in place, it shows they are behind the times. Clearly what is needed is a new PSO which consolidates all those presently relating to prisoner communication and new sections which deal specifically with the internet. I am in favour of prisoners having mobile phones and internet access in their cells. In Germany, for example, prisoners are allowed internet access in their cells. It’s called progress. However I am not blind to possible security implications. It does not help matters when headlines scream that a prisoner ordered a hit on a rival gang member via a mobile phone in his cell. Or the more recent … “the killer of a father-of three has sparked outrage after boasting on Facebook how cushy life is in jail – from his prison cell” (Telegraph). In a post 9/11 world it would be all too easy for the authorities to overreact.
McIver and James state: “Recent legislation and regulations restrict prisoners’ rights to communicate, as articulated by the U.S. Constitution, U.S. legal code, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights. This expansion of police powers has diminished the space for political rights and created new challenges for human rights advocates”. For example, the Los Angeles Times opinion column, in relation to ‘the American Taliban’, states “Lindh's sentence also gags him, preventing him from protesting his confinement or discussing his interrogation and treatment …A poll of potential jurors in the Eastern District of Virginia at that time found that more than a third were ready to sentence him to death without even hearing the case against him”.
Whilst the authorities tend to think in terms of security in relation to prisoner communications, there is another side; for example this headline from an online article: “Connecting from the inside; Web offers inmates chance to communicate, form relationships”. There is a very good blog called Prisoners’ Families Voices. If the authorities are still too worried about in-cell internet access, for the present, might I suggest a temporary compromise? For example, the public are allowed internet access in public libraries outside. Surely there is no valid reason why the public (not at large) cannot access the internet from public libraries inside? “Razor” and Ben Gunn may be accused of opening up a can of worms, but if you read the label, it clearly states: “Don’t shoot the messenger!”
Prison Service Order 4411 - Developments in Europe
Prison Service Order 4650 - Prisoners’ Voting Rights
Prison Service Order 2750 - Violence Reduction
PSI 15/2010 - Ending of End of Custody License Scheme (ECL)
Prison Service Order 07900 333 208 - Mobile Telephones
Prison Service Order 0001 - The Instructions System
Prison Service Order 4700 - Indeterminate Sentence Manual (Formerly Lifer Manual)
PSO 4400 Correction - Correction
Prison Service Order 4460 - Prisoners’ pay
Prison Service Order 6710 - Prison Libraries
Current page: PPSO 4400, 4410 and 4411 - Prisoner communications
Prison Service Order 1900 - Certified Prisoner Accommodation
Prison Service Order 2600 - Legal issues relating to prisoners replaced Standing Order 16 – Litigants
Prison Service Order 4745 - Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA)
Prison Service Order 4650 - Prisoners’ Voting Rights (Update)
Prison Service Order 0050 - Public Relations
Prison Service Order 4470 - Prisoners’ access to the media
Prison Service Order 4650 - Prisoners’ Voting Rights
Prison Service Order 4480 - Prisoners’ Representative Associations
Prison Service Order 1010 - Category ‘A’ Prisoners: Reviews of Security Category
Prison Service Order 4700 - Lifer Manual
Prison Service Order 0900 - Categorisation and Allocation
Prison Service Order 0550 - Prisoner Induction
Prison Service Order 0500 - Reception
Prison Service Order 3550 - Clinical Services for Substance Misusers
Prison Service Order 3200 - Health promotion
Prison Service Order 3100 - Clinical Governance - Quality in Prison Healthcare
PRISON SERVICE ORDER 3050 - Continuity of healthcare for prisoners
Prison Service Order 2000 - The Prison Discipline Manual – Adjudications
Prison Service Order 4000 - Incentives and Earned Privileges
Prison Service Order 4275 - Time in the open air
Prison Service Order 4411 - Prisoner Communications – Correspondence
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Issue : September 2010
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