rights on remand

  • Remand prisoners are supposed to be treated as though they are not guilty. However, they’re often held in the worst, most overcrowded conditions. Remand is supposed to be used by the court only when there is a risk to the public but figures show this is not the case. Just under two thirds of people on remand are waiting for trial accused of non violent crimes. In 2007, 30% of people remanded in prison went on to receive a sentence that wasn’t prison. 
  • Remand prisoners have the same need for support as convicted prisoners. They should be able to get help with keeping their home and/or job and keeping in touch with their family.  While on remand, they should also be able to get help to carry on running any business from prison - as long as it is legal.
  • Another important right for remand prisoners is that they can still vote. Someone who is unconvicted or convicted and not yet sentenced keeps this right.  However, it can be hard for the individual to arrange this from prison as they have to register and many people are not told about this right.
  • The rules also say that remand prisoners do not have to get NHS treatment from the healthcare staff if they don’t want this. They can get healthcare from a private doctor or dentist. They will have to pay for this but the prison is supposed to help to arrange this.
  • Remand prisoners do not have to work if they don’t want to. However, not working can mean that people will spend more time locked in their cell.
  • As remand prisoners are held in local prisons they generally receive less time out of cell than people in training prisons anyway. The Prisons Inspectorate surveyed remand prisons in 2002 and recommended that remand prisoners should be out of their cells for 10 hours or more a day.
  • Despite this, it is still the case that remand prisoners have less time unlocked than other prisoners.  In the last figures only seven percent of people in local prisons said they have 10 hours (or more) out of their cell a day. In addition, the numbers of people in local prisons going out for exercise three or more times a week had also dropped.
  • The IEP scheme also has an impact on how long people can be unlocked during the day. Remand prisoners can find it hard to get enhanced status as they don’t always have the chance to show repeated good behaviour.
  • Offender management and sentence planning changes have meant that some prisoners receive more resources.  However, for people on remand, (who don’t have a sentence to plan) staff time has been diverted to people who qualify for offender management.
  • Another big problem is the lack of support when leaving prison. Someone can be found guilty at court and get a sentence but find that they have actually served this time on remand already.  If their sentence is 14 days or over, they should be entitled to get a discharge grant  (£46) and a travel warrant  from the escort staff in the court.
  • There is generally no compensation for people who have served time on remand, however long they may have been inside for. The only cases where this can happen are where the police have acted improperly.  A remand prisoner that leaves prison or court having been found not guilty is not entitled to any support from the probation service or to the £46 discharge grant.  It seems particularly unfair that people who have been in prison, without being convicted cannot access the (very limited) support that a convicted prisoner gets on release. The difficulties people experience on leaving prison can be the same whether convicted or not.