PRISON GOVERNORS LOSE POWER TO EXTEND PRISONERS’ SENTENCES

Following the European Court of Human Rights decision in the case of Ezeh and Connors v The United Kingdom on 15 July 2002, prison governors in England and Wales have just received a letter from the Deputy Director General of the Prison Service suspending the imposition of added days for prisoners and instructing governors to strike off added days from prisoners’ sentences. 

 Commenting today, Joe Levenson, Policy Officer of the Prison Reform Trust said that:

“We welcome the news that prison governors will lose their powers to extend prisoners’ sentences.  This is a landmark decision.  Imprisonment should only be imposed by an independent court and with legal representation available for prisoners.  However, it is deeply disappointing that the Prison Service ignored our warnings that they were breaking human rights law.  As a result, they will now have to release hundreds of prisoners and face damages claims which will run into millions of pounds from prisoners who were illegally detained.”

Background

•    The Prison Reform Trust (PRT) has long warned that the Prison Service risked breaching human rights law by allowing prison governors to add extra days to prison sentences.  Article 6 of the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees that “Everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable period of time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law”.  
 
 •    Two years ago, shortly before the Human Rights Act came into force on 2 October 2000, Prison Reform Trust published a report ‘A Hard Act to Follow? Prisons and the Human Rights Act’, which argued that:
 
“Article 6 [of the ECHR and Human Rights Act] could have significant effects on the prison disciplinary system…. If prison disciplinary charges, or at least the imposition of added days, are shown to be criminal charges, then the rights guaranteed in Article 6 apply.  The current system would have to be reformed as a hearing before a prison governor cannot be regarded as independent”.