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United Kingdom: England & Wales

Capital city — London

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Panorama

Contact with the outside world

Visitation rights

All prisoners have the right to receive visits

yes

Prison Rule 35 requires prisoners to have a one-hour visit twice a month. At least one of these visits must take place on weekends. The warden may temporarily suspend this right when the person is placed in solitary confinement and when theyconsider that the behaviour of the person requires it.1

A person in pre-trial detention may receive “as many visits as they wish within such limits and under such conditions as the Secretary of State may prescribe, either generally or in any particular case” (Prison Rule 35).

  1. Department of Justice, PSI 16/2011 on Visits and Visitor Services. ↩

Social visits require a permit. There are two types of visits: admission visits, authorised within 72 hours of incarceration, and ordinary visits. The permit can be applied for online, on the government website, or by calling the prison. The visitor must communicate the name of the person to visit, their prison number and date of birth. The prisoner must mention the visitor’s name on their authorised list. The visitor must present a passport photo on arrival.1

  1. Department of Justice, PSI 16/2011 on Visits and Visitor Services. ↩

Visit permits are granted

within a week

The government website informs the person scheduling their online visit that a confirmation email will be sent to them within one to three days.

People eligible to visit

any person

The facility is required to provide a visiting space that is as “relaxed and informal” as possible. It must have decent facilities, toilets, changing space for babies… Lockers are available for visitors to safely store any items prohibited in detention. Reasonably priced food (snacks, meals, hot or cold drinks…) are available for purchase. They must be adapted for religious, cultural or dietary diets. The number of adult visitors is limited to three for a single prisoner. This number is not limited to children of the same detained parent.1

  1. Department of Justice, PSI 16/2011 on Visits and Visitor Services. ↩

Prisoners and visitors can meet without physical barriers

yes

A separation device may be imposed during a visit to prevent the introduction of forbidden products or other facts that could jeopardise “the good order and control of the facility”.1

  1. Department of Justice, PSI 15/2011 on safety management during visits. ↩

Prisoners are allowed to receive visits from their children or minor relatives

yes

Facilities are required to provide children with adapted equipment and games. Special visits are sometimes authorised in certain facilities for family events.1

  1. Department of Justice, circulaire PSI 16/2011 on Visits and Visitor Services. ↩

Conjugal visits are allowed

no

Visitors may bring authorised objects or goods. The PSI 16/2011 defines the list. Objects that are “indecent or obscene, constituting a threat to the security of the prison or are written in coded language” are prohibited.

The visitor is prohibited from releasing anything written by a prisoner intended for publication and from being paid for it.1

Prisons Minister, Victoria Atkins, confirmed in the House of Commons on 25 May 2022 that “families and friends could send books to their imprisoned loved ones - either directly or via approved providers”. The announcement followed the banning of books not sent via approved providers by at least two prisons, in contravention of a rule introduced in 2015 permitting inmates to receive books by hand or by post from any sender. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, families were no longer allowed to hand books directly to their detained loved ones due to the risk of contamination, but were still entitled to post books. Victoria Atkins said that the prisons which acted in contravention of the rule had been reminded of it and their actions addressed.

In the visiting area, facilities display useful information and a list of the main prohibited objects in several languages and with images.2

  1. Department of Justice, Staying in touch with someone in prison. ↩

  2. Department of Justice, PSI 16/2011 on Visits and Visitor Services. ↩

Current legislation and policies do not provide for the placement of prisoners in facilities located near their relatives’ place of residence. However, some measures are taken to ensure that family ties are maintained for those who are imprisoned at a distance. Prisoners may apply for temporary transfer to a nearby facility. The duration of such a placement must not exceed that of 26 statutory visits. The prisoner had to waive their visiting rights during the 12 months preceding the reunification.1

  1. Department of Justice, PSI 16/2011 on Visits and Visitor Services. ↩

Correspondence

Prisoners are allowed to exchange mail

yes, under conditions

Correspondence with any person or body may, at the discretion of the prison governor, be prohibited (under Prison Rule 34). Such a prohibition is possible if there is “reason to believe that the person or body concerned is planning or carrying out activities posing a genuine threat to the safety or good order of the facility or other facilities”.1

The number of letters allowed depends on the type :

  • statutory letter: the weekly number of these letters is fixed and they cannot be banned as a punishment. The mailing costs are paid by the State.
  • priviledged letter: confidential correspondence between a prisoner and his lawyer, a magistrate or any other authorised person or body.
  • special letter: additional letters that are allowed to be sent in a number of circumstances

The number of letters also depends on the status of the prisoner, whether convicted or not. Refer to the PSI49/2011 for further details.

  1. Department of Justice, PSI 49/on the communications from prisoners, p. 8. ↩

Mail exchanged is subject to control

yes

Most incoming and outgoing mail is subject to staff control.1 “Any letter or other correspondence to or from a prisoner may be read, listened to, recorded or examined by the prison governor. They may, at their discretion, intercept or stop any letter or other correspondence if its contents are objectionable or unusually long” (Rule 34.4).

Refer to the Legal and confidential mail section of the PSI 49/2011 to find out the list of bodies and individuals benefiting from confidential exchanges.

  1. Department of Justice, Staying in touch with someone in prison. ↩

Prisoners are allowed to exchange mail in sealed envelopes

yes

All mail can be checked. The prison governor may open a legally confidential letter if they have “reasonable grounds to believe that it is accompanied by illegal material, is not genuinely a letter from legal counsel, or that its contents jeopardise prison security, the safety of others, or is in any way criminal”.1

  1. Department of Justice, PSI 49/2011 on communications from prisoners, p. 18. ↩

Prisoners are allowed to receive parcels

no

Relatives or family members of prisoners are no longer allowed to send objects to them by post or during visits. 1 Exceptional authorisation may be granted. Before purchasing or sending any object, relatives are required to obtain authorisation from prison staff.2

  1. See the site of Prisoners’ Families Helpline. ↩

  2. Department of Justice, Staying in touch with someone in prison. ↩

E-mail exchange is possible

no

Some prisons provide access to the service Email a prisoner. The dispatched message is printed and transmitted to the prisoner by staff. Each e-mail costs 40 pence. Prisoners are allowed, in some institutions, to reply also via Email a prisoner.1

  1. Department of Justice, Staying in touch with someone in prison. ↩

Phone calls

Prisoners are allowed to make external phone calls

yes

The authorised call time is normally more than two hours per day. It is possible, by using the service Prison Voicemail, to exchange voice mails with a prisoner.

Prisoners are allowed to call

relatives

Prisoners are provided, upon authorisation, with a list of telephone calls. This list includes up to 20 personal numbers and 15 legal and confidential numbers. In addition to these 35 numbers, they can contact other organisations: the Prison Reform Trust, the Samaritans, the Prison and Probation Ombudsman (PPO), the Crimestoppers association, the courts and the Palace of Westminster, the seat of Parliament. Prisoners do not have access to business numbers, except to communicate with family members or relatives.

The phones are located

  • in the corridors
  • in the cell

Of the closed facilities managed by the prison service, 86% have telephones in the cells.

All women’s prisons now have a telephone in each cell1 according to the authorities.

  1. Inside Time, In-cell phones at all women’s prisons, october 2021. ↩

The cost of phone calls is in line with market prices

no

Telephones are provided by the private company BT, which takes on the cost of providing the phones and in return generates a profit from the calls.

The cost of phone calls breaks down as follows:

  • £3.10 per minute to a landline (weekday)

  • £2.75 per minute to a landline (weekend)

  • £6.88 per minute to a mobile (weekday)

  • £4.50 per minute to a mobile (weekend)

Phones calls are wire tapped

yes

Calls are monitored and recorded by prison staff. Calls to lawyers or to bodies listed in Prison Rule 39 are not.

The use of cell phones is authorised

no

Prisoners have access to video calls with external contacts

no