Sentence progression Detention of foreign national prisoners post-sentence I was told that I would be leaving today, but after I had packed up my cell and walked to the gate I was brought back in and told there is now an immigration hold on me.12 Currently, people who have finished their criminal sentence but who are being considered for deportation can be kept in prison under immigration powers. The Prison Reform Trust believes that the practice of detaining anybody who is post-sentence in prison is unacceptable. There are a number of alternative options that could be explored including increased use of bail, tagging, curfew and other supervision measures. Conditions in prison are often harsher than in immigration detention centres with people being locked up for longer. UKBA can refuse to take people applying to move from prison to a detention centre. Therefore, holding immigration detainees in prison provides a ‘free good’ for UKBA whilst creating a number of challenges and strain on staff and resources for the prison service. Subjecting someone to indefinite detention is an extreme form of punishment and should be used only in exceptional circumstances. Research from PRT and others clearly shows that indefinite detention is a profound and extremely distressing experience both for the people detained and their loved ones.13 In theory, anyone post-sentence (held under immigration act powers not criminal justice powers) should be held with the same status as a ‘remand’ prisoner. In practice, remand prisoners are often locked in their cells for longest, sometimes up to 23 hours a day, have less access to work and education and are held in B category — almost high security conditions. In reality, for people post-sentence, access to courses, education and work is more limited. Again this may be because these opportunities are given to prisoners who are not under threat of deportation. ‘Why is it so hard to get anyone’s attention, every day my pleas have been totally disregarded’.14 The lack of understanding about foreign national prisoners’ needs and the prison service’s duty of care and responsibilities towards them impacts on every aspect of the regime. They should be assessed for resettlement opportunities and open conditions on their individual circumstances, as a British national would be. The prison service’s own polices support this, as the blanket ban on foreign national prisoners going to open conditions was lifted and new guidance was issued in 2011. However, there is still confusion about this. Anecdotally we hear from prisoners and officers that foreign national prisoners are not eligible for open conditions. There is also still a myth in prisons that foreign national prisoners cannot get day release (release on temporary licence). Although these decisions have to be ratified by UKBA, there is nothing in law or policy to stop people getting day release or going to open conditions. Once in open conditions, only British and EEA prisoners are allowed to work but foreign national prisoners, once security cleared, may be able to volunteer. Some of the difficulties that people in prison experience in making progress are due to an ongoing lack of communication between UKBA and NOMS. Currently, there are a number of situations where prison staff cannot facilitate a decision on someone’s progress without input from immigration staff. These include, (but are not limited to) release on temporary licence (ROTL) and access to D category (open prison). Foreign national prisoners are systematically excluded from offending behaviour courses and other sentence progression opportunities, as there is often an assumption that they will not be released into the UK. Foreign national prisoners often have a limited level of contact with community-based offender managers, who work on the same assumption. This limited contact means that offender managers The lack of understanding about foreign national prisoners’ needs and the prison service’s duty of care and responsibilities towards them impacts on every aspect of the regime. 12. 13. 14. Prisoner quoted in No Way Out, Prison Reform Trust 2012:10. Unjust Deserts, Prison Reform Trust 2010. Quote from a letter to PRT’s advice and information service. Issue 205 Prison Service Journal 49