4.3 All prisoners are allocated a PIN number in order that they may use the
Pin-phone facility to maintain contact with friends or family whilst they are in
custody. They must be informed verbally and in writing that their communications
are subject to interception and they must complete a contacts list which separately
identifies any numbers which should be placed on the confidential side of their
Pin-phone account. The telephone numbers of legal advisers will then be entered
into the Pin-phone system in such a way that any calls to these numbers will
automatically not be recorded. Generally this should act as a good safeguard and
prevent any legally privileged conversations being monitored unintentionally but
it is not totally failsafe. Towards the end of last year the Prison Service introduced
new measures which are designed to prevent breaches of Articles 6 and 8 of
the Human Rights Act. In reality the system still relies heavily upon manual
intervention, and so no guarantee can be given that a breach will never occur in the
future. However, providing the prisoners and their lawyers always adhere to the
rules and the prison staff apply the process diligently the risk of legally privileged
communications being intercepted will be minimised.
4.4 As part of the new measures the Chief Operating Officer issued a new
version of the Communications Compact, together with a directive that a copy
must be provided to each prisoner who enters a prison establishment. It also
contains a section where the prisoner must provide the contact numbers of his
legal advisers so that they can be checked and then placed on the confidential
side of the Pin-phone account. Serious weaknesses and failings were found in
this aspect of the process during the inspection of 52 prison establishments this
year and this must be a cause for concern. In two instances the Communications
Compact was not in evidence at all and fourteen establishments had failed to
introduce the current version. Seven establishments were not carrying out checks
on the legal contact numbers and the remaining 29 establishments were failing to
follow the correct procedures for issuing and filing the document. Following these
inspections a recommendation was made to remedy the failings and weaknesses
and the Governors in each of these establishments have since assured me that they
have been implemented. Nonetheless about 50 prison establishments have still to
be inspected since the new measures were introduced and I cannot predict with
any degree of confidence that they will be fully compliant with this important
aspect of the process.
Work of the Inspectorate during the period covered by
this report
4.5 There are 139 prisons in England & Wales and since the Inspectorate
was formed virtually all of them have been inspected at least twice. Prisons in
the High Security Estate are generally subject to an annual inspection but the
frequency of inspections of other establishments depends on their previous level
of compliance.
4.6 During the period covered by this report my Inspectors visited 88 prisons
which roughly equates to two thirds of the whole estate. This number includes
4 prisons which were visited twice during the year because very serious failings
were found in the systems and processes for conducting the interception of
communications. The inspection usually takes one working day although in order
to achieve this in the larger prisons the Inspectors work in pairs. Following the
conclusion of the inspection a detailed report is prepared for me and this is sent to
the Governor and relevant staff, together with a schedule of recommendations or
an action plan if necessary.
4.7 Lawful monitoring carried out in accordance with published criteria can help
to safeguard the public, the prison, its staff and other prisoners. It requires good
practice by well trained, well led and dedicated staff. This must be supported by a
sound infrastructure incorporating good quality documentation capable of being
completed to the highest standard in order to provide clear and unambiguous
audit trails.
18