SILVER AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUGDMENT
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(c) ex-prisoners, where there is reason to believe that correspondence
would seriously impede rehabilitation;
(d) a person (other than a close relative) or organisation believed to be
planning or engaged in activities that seriously threaten the security or good
order of a prison establishment.
C. Provisions concerning the quantity of correspondence
38.
The following basic Rules concerning the amount of
correspondence which a prisoner may conduct came into operation on 25
March 1964 and are still in force:
"34(1) An unconvicted prisoner may send and receive as many letters ... as he
wishes within such limits and subject to such conditions as the Secretary of State may
direct, either generally or in a particular case.
(2) A convicted prisoner shall be entitled
(a) to send and to receive a letter on his reception into a prison and thereafter once a
week;
...
(3) The governor may allow a prisoner an additional letter ... where necessary for
his welfare or that of his family.
(4) The governor may allow a prisoner entitled to a visit to send and to receive a
letter instead.
...
(6) The visiting committee or board of visitors" (or, with effect from 1 January
1972, "The board of visitors") "may allow a prisoner an additional letter ... in special
circumstances ...
(7) The Secretary of State may allow additional letters ... in relation to any prisoner
or class of prisoners."
1. Position prior to 1 December 1981
39. In addition to his entitlement under Rule 34(2) to send - at public
expense - and to receive one letter per week, a convicted prisoner was
allowed to send at his own expense at least one extra letter per week, and to
receive a reply (Order 5A 3(8) and Instruction 155/1968).
The prison authorities’ discretion under Rules 34(3), (6) and (7) to allow
further letters was exercised where possible.
These quantitative restrictions did not apply to remand prisoners (Rule
34(1)), but they were in most other respects subject to the same regulations
on correspondence as convicted prisoners.