§ Mr. Wheelerasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if the review of the restrictions on correspondence to and from prisoners in England and Wales has been completed.
§ Mr. WhitelawThe review of the restrictions on the correspondence of inmates of prison department establishments—in England and Wales—has now been completed and new arrangements have been made with effect from today. These are set out in prison department standing order 5, a copy of which has been placed in the Library of the House.
Inmates will be allowed much greater freedom in their choice of correspondents. Inmates were formerly entitled to write only to relatives, persons whom they knew before they came into custody, Members of Parliament and other specified persons. The new standing order provides that prisoners may correspond with anyone, subject to certain specified exceptions. The main exception is that governors will have discretion to stop correspondence with a person or organisation which he has reason to believe is planning or engaged in activities which present a real and serious threat to the security of good order of any prison department establishment.
The restrictions on the contents of inmates' correspondence have also been relaxed. The prohibitions on improper language, begging letters, objectionable references to people in public life, attempts to stimulate public agitation and petition, and complaints which hold the criminal justice authorities up to contempt have been abolished. Unconvicted inmates will now be allowed to correspond about all business matters and all inmates will be allowed to send out material for publication, subject to some important conditions. Inmates who wish to make a complaint about treatment in prison will not now have to wait for the outcome of the internal investigation of the complaint before mentioning it in correspondence, but they will still be expected to raise the complaint through the appropriate internal procedure. The only restriction on correspondence between inmates and Members of Parliament is that this may not contain a complaint about prison treatment or prison staff which has not also been raised internally.
Although the new standing order makes no changes in the existing entitlements on the number and length of letters an inmate may send, it makes it clear that extra letters will be allowed whenever resources permit. Restrictions are necessary to ensure that the limited 101W number of staff are able to examine correspondence in accordance with the existing provisions for examination and reading of inmate correspondence.
The new prison department standing order and a short guide to its contents are now available to prisoners in all prison department establishments. Copies may also be purchased from the Home Office library.