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GAZETTE
SEPTEMBER
1989
Book Reviews
IMPR I SONMENT: THE
LEGAL STATUS OF
PRISONERS
By G. D. Treverton-Jones,
M.A.Oxon. of the Inner Temple,
Barrister. Sweet & Maxwell.
This book states and explains the
body of law applicable to prisoners
in the UK as at 1st September 1988
and is aptly prefaced by the quote
of W. S. Churchill "The mood and
temper of the public with regard to
the t r ea tment of crime and
criminals is one of the most un-
failing tests of the civilisation of any
country".
Chapter I outlines the history and
structure of the penal system from
a privately operated profit-making
system to the present-day modern
process under Home Office control,
included are the origins of the
Habeas Corpus
Acts and the contri-
bution to reform of such well
known persons as Elizabeth Fry
whose work at Newgate from 1816
lasted for nearly 30 years.
Chapter II surveys the sentencing
powers of the Court including the
concept of extended sentencing.
The object of extended sentencing
is to enable the Courts to impose
a longer term of imprisonment than
the offence itself would have
attracted, in order to "protect the
public f r om the activities of
persistent offenders".
Chapter III deals wi th prisoners'
rights including the application of
the Bill of Rights 1688 and the
familiar European Convention on
Human Rights (1950) to which all
21 members of the Council of
Europe are parties. A reference is
included to one of the strangest
cases litigated in the UK, the case
of
Meah -v- McCreamer
[1985] 1
All E.R. 367. The applicant,
convicted of sexual assaults on
women, successfully claimed that
this was due to a personality
change caused by head injuries/
brain damage sustained as a result
of a road accident in which he was
a vehicle passenger. Prior to the
accident, though he had committed
a number of criminal offences, he
had man i f es t ed no violence
towards women. The Courts held
that since, but for the head injuries
and subsequent
personality
change, the plaintiff would not have
committed the offences for which
he was serving a life sentence, he
was en t i t l ed to subs t an t i al
damages to compensate him for
being in prison. He was awarded
£60,000 general damages without
specifying what proportion of that
sum was specifically intended to
compensate for his imprisonment.
Chapters IV and V detail the law
relating to the classification of
prisoners and the daily regime in
prisons.
Chapter VI outlines the develop-
ment of the law in the areas of
prisoner's correspondence, visits
and access to the Courts, the
issues concerning the prisoner as
a litigant and the various means of
procuring or ensuring the attend-
ance of a prisoner in court. Of
interest are the decisions of the
European Court of Human Rights in
Golder -v- United Kingdom [1975]
1 E.H.R.R. 524 on prisoner's access
to legal advice,
Silver -v- United
Kingdom
[1980] 3 E.H.R.R. 475 and
[1983] 5 E.H.R.R. 347 on censor-
ship of mail to
inter alia
legal
advisers and
R. -v- Board of Visitors
Dartmouth
Prison exp.
Smith
[1987] Q.B. 106 on access to the
Courts and the general impact of
judicial review on Prison Regula-
tions. The latter reminds us that
" t he Courts are in general the
ultimate custodians of the rights
and liberties of the subject what-
ever his status and however
a t t enua t ed t hose rights and
liberties may be as a result of some
punititive or other process".
Chapters VII and VIII review the
law and regulations on prison
discipline and the transfer and
release of prisoners. Included are
the provisions of the Repatriation
and Prisoners Act 1984 which
permits the movement of prisoners
between jurisdictions party to the
International Convention on the
Transfer of Sentenced Persons
1983. This Convention enables a
term of imprisonment imposed in
one jurisdiction to be served in
another jurisdiction, w i th the
prisoner's consent.
Chapter IX outlines the legal
effects of a sentence of imprison-
ment upon life outside prison wi th
emphasis on con t r ac ts
of
employment. The provisions of the
Repatriation and Prisoners Act,
1984 are included. The effects of
this legislation are that a person
who has become a rehabilitated
person in respect of a specified
conviction is treated for most
purposes as a person " who has not
committed or been charged with or
prosecuted for or convicted of or
sentenced for the offence or
offences which were the subject of
that conviction".
Finally the Prison Rules 1964 (as
amended) and the European Prison
Rules 1987 (Revised European
version of the Standard Minimum
Rules for the Treatment of
Prisoners) are reproduced as
appendices.
In relation to the complexity of
law and regulations in particular
areas, the reference to the decision
of the European Court in
Sunday
Times -v- United Kingdom
[1979] 2
E.H.R.R. 245 on the interpretation
of " i n accordance with law", is
notable. Apart from the require-
ment that the relevant law must be
adequately accessible to the
ordinary citizen, there is the
additional requirement that " i t
must be formulated with sufficient
precision to enable the citizen to
regulate his conduct accordingly".
There is no comparable work
available on the domestic law of
the Republic of Ireland and the UK
text does provide a significant and
interesting insight into a corpus of
law in this area.
Tom Cahill, M.Litt., B.L., M.C.I.T.
FREEDOM, THE
I ND I V I DUAL AND THE
LAW
6th Edition. By Geoffrey
Robertson. (London: Penguin
Books, 1989, paperback 442 pp.
£7.99 sterling)
The library of many lawyers
contains an edition of
Freedom, the
Individual and the Law
by the late
Harry Street, Solicitor, who died in
1984. The five earlier editions were
written by "a street-wise academic
who knew what was in the
Emperor's wardrobe and was not
afraid to point out to the crowd the
need for new clothes". Very little of
Harry Street's original text remains,
but Geoffrey Robertson endeavours
to maintain Harry Street's focus on
the practical consequences of legal
rules and those areas which require
reform.
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