Double Punishment: The treatment of foreign national prisoners Francesca Cooney is the Advice and Information Manager for The Prison Reform Trust.1 A foreign national prisoner (FNP) is defined in prison service policy as someone who does not hold a UK passport. It is not easy to generalise about who this term covers as it encompasses people of different nationalities and statuses. Very many will have been in the UK legally at the time of their arrest. Some have lived in the UK for a long time, others are economic migrants looking for a better life, and still others are fleeing persecution from their homeland. At the end of June 2012, there were 10,861 people classed as foreign national prisoners in England and Wales and 1,949 whose nationality was not recorded.2 They came from 160 countries. However, over half were from ten countries — Jamaica, Poland, Republic of Ireland, Nigeria, Romania, Pakistan, Lithuania, India, Somalia and Vietnam.3 The following list is not exhaustive but foreign national prisoners may be:  Foreign citizens with British partners and children  People brought into the country as children with their families  Asylum seekers with indefinite leave to remain  European and Irish Nationals  People trafficked as drug carriers or for menial labor or sex work  People who had legal permission to be in the UK, which expired during time in prison  People who entered the country on false documentation who were arrested at point of entry There are significant numbers among this group who have the right to live and work in this country. There are others, such as those trafficked or facing persecution in their country of origin that we have a duty to protect. In addition, there are people in prison who were brought to this country as very young children. Many people come here legally with their 1. 2. 3. families, who may not have got their status regularised. They therefore have few or no links to other countries. They grow up within the education system and get work here. They may not realise that they are not actually UK citizens until they enter prison and have their status assessed by the immigration authorities. Then, they and their families have to face the prospect of them being deported away from their home and community to a country where they have no connections. In a fair system, deportation and removal decisions would be made on a case-by-case basis, looking at an individual’s situation thoroughly. The pressures on UKBA to deport people and the lack of resources mean this often does not happen. The blanket policies, such as an assumption of deportation for non EEA nationals with a sentence of a year or more and procedures that are driven by an aim to remove as many people as possible from the country, lead to a deeply unfair and biased system. One reason that the prison system is currently failing to meet the needs of this population is because, all too often, it treats foreign national prisoners as though they are a homogenous group. It is important that UKBA and the prison service have a more accurate understanding of the different circumstances of people in UK prisons and respond accordingly. The Prison Reform Trust’s advice and information service responds to around 6,000 requests for help a year. Through this work, and research with people in prison and prison staff, we are aware of the difficulties many foreign national prisoners encounter when attempting to navigate the dual challenges of the immigration and prison systems. This article looks at the current difficulties that foreign national prisoners are experiencing. It also discusses how the prison service has changed the way it manages and supports foreign national prisoners as a result of the government’s proactive agenda of deporting foreign national prisoners. A charity working to create a fair and decent prison system. The PRT receives no government funding in order to maintain independence (www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk). Table 1.6, Ministry of Justice (2012) Offender Management Statistics Quarterly Bulletin, January to March 2012, London: Ministry of Justice Ibid. Issue 205 Prison Service Journal 45