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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales High Court (Administrative Court) Decisions >> Bryant, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2005] EWHC 1663 (Admin) (06 July 2005) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2005/1663.html Cite as: [2005] EWHC 1663 (Admin) |
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QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
THE ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
Strand London WC2 |
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B e f o r e :
____________________
THE QUEEN ON THE APPLICATION OF STEPHEN BRYANT | (CLAIMANT) | |
-v- | ||
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT | (DEFENDANT) |
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Smith Bernal Wordwave Limited
190 Fleet Street London EC4A 2AG
Tel No: 020 7404 1400 Fax No: 020 7831 8838
(Official Shorthand Writers to the Court)
MS K GALLAFENT (instructed by Treasury Solicitors) appeared on behalf of the DEFENDANT
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Crown Copyright ©
Wednesday, 6th July 2005
MR JUSTICE GOLDRING:
The issues
The facts
"On the 19 March 2004, our client was granted a contact Order permitting contact between him and his daughter Natalie on alternate Saturdays at a suitable contact centre, such contact to commence upon Mr Bryant being transferred to open conditions. It was also agreed that Mr Bryant would exercise telephone contact with his daughter between 5.00pm and 7.00pm on the non-visit Saturday upon his move to open conditions. When this agreement was reached, it was understood that Mr Bryant was to obtain Category D status in May 2004."
The claimant's first recategorisation
"Mr Bryant has been at HMP Rye Hill since 17/5/01. Originally sentenced to 14 years in December 2001 for Conspiracy to Burglary. He has a non-parole release date of 21/12/09. He has no proven adjudications, no positive Voluntary Drug Tests, no positive Mandatory Drug Tests. He has completed the Victim Awareness, Reasoning and Rehabilitation Social Life Skills, a CARATS referral and awaiting a place on an Anger Management course.
The Board took note of the positive attitude towards the custodial environment and the work done towards addressing his offending behaviour and felt that Mr Bryant was suitable for recategorisation from C to D."
"CATEGORY D PRISONERS
"1. The small number of determinant sentence Category D prisoners in the open estate with 5 years or more left to serve have been returned to closed conditions for a review of their categorisation and allocation. They will remain Category D while the process takes place. Any prisoners in the same category but currently in the closed estate will also be reviewed.
2. This is being done in response to concerns about absconds from the open estate and to afford us the opportunity to re-risk assess individuals in this particular category.
3. It is important that Governors of closed prisons holding Category D prisoners are aware of this exercise. Special care must be taken with any Category D prisoners held in a closed prison and with 5 years or more left to serve, whether there as a result of this exercise or for any other reason. They must not be allowed to work outside of the secure perimeter and must not be transferred to the open estate prior to a review of their categorisation."
The consequences of the claimant being returned to Rye
"First of all, let me say how sorry I am that you have suffered the disappointment of being returned from Cat D conditions. I can understand that it feels like a 'punishment' and, as you say, you have done nothing wrong. However, I would ask you to understand that there are new rules about eligibility for Cat D conditions and HMP Leyhill is abiding by these new regulations. There is nothing that we at Rye Hill can do about this. Also, please understand that your Cat D is not an 'earnable privilege'. It is a matter of security and certain new boundaries have been set."
"I am unable to comment on the individual decisions made concerning the recategorisation of your client, and have not seen any of the documentation in this case. I can provide you with the general policy on categorisation and changes to that policy which have been introduced this year.
In January 2004 a decision was taken to review the policy and procedures for the assessment of long-term prisoners to open conditions. Against the background of a general rise in absconds from open prisons and the high profile case of Roderick McLean, there were concerns that when considering the recategorisation of long-term prisoners for Category D, existing guidance did not give sufficient weight to the seriousness of the index offence, sentence length and time left to serve in order to properly protect the public.
As an immediate action while new policy was developed, it was decided to return to closed conditions for a review of their categorisation and allocation, the small number of prisoners held in the open estate who had 5 years or more left to serve. At the same time, Governors of closed establishments were advised not to move any category D prisoners into the open estate with more than 5 years left to serve."
Mr Wheatley referred also to the fact that the Secretary of State was in the process of issuing new guidance on identifying prisoners suitable for Category D status.
"Family ties may be taken into account only in relation to a prisoner's allocation to a suitable prison of the same category (or in some limited circumstances a higher security category) as the prisoner himself. Prisoners cannot be downgraded to a lower security category in order to facilitate access to family (although domestic problems may impact on the risk of a prisoner absconding from open prison and may influence a decision not to allocate to open prison while those circumstances prevail).
I would also like to clarify that prison records indicate that Mr Bryant is still a category D prisoner. He has not been recategorised to category C but moved back to closed conditions in line with the revised policy."
That final observation was correct.
"I have considered your request for special consideration in respect of a move to a category D ahead of the time as set down in the new directive for the Prison Service.
I am sorry to inform you that having examined your case and discussed it with others, I cannot find such exceptional conditions about your circumstances that warrant exception to the new guideline."
"Recategorisation to a higher category of prison will normally be non-routine and in response to a significant change in risk or behaviour."
In the section headed "State How Risk Has Increased" it states this:
"In light of new guidance from the Prison Service HQ HMP Leyhill have assessed the risk as increased due to length of time to serve to PED (2007) and there are no exceptional circumstances to warrant category D conditions."
Prison Service Order 09000
"3. Categorisation and allocation of prisoners is a critical task. Effectively assigning prisoners to the correct security category and allocating them to an appropriate prison helps to ensure that they do not escape or abscond or threaten the control of establishments. It also means that prisoners are not held in conditions of security higher than are necessary.
4. Categorisation, recategorisation and allocation are all so vital to the sentence management of prisoners. The correct categorisation and allocation, balancing security issues and the needs of the prisoner, helps prisoners to use their sentences constructively, to tackle their offending behaviour and to prepare for release."
"Prisoners who cannot be trusted in open conditions, but who do not have the resources and the will to make a determined escape attempt."
"Prisoners who can be reasonably trusted in open conditions."
"Prisoners must be categorised objectively according to the likelihood that they will seek to escape and the risk that they would pose should they do so."
"Although consideration of control factors is permitted, factors such as ability to mix with other prisoners, educational, training or medical needs, and the availability of vacancies at suitable establishments must not be taken into account at this stage. They are for consideration during allocation. The allocation process may immediately follow, but will be distinct from security categorisation."
"A prisoner must be assigned to the correct security category even if it is clear that it will not be possible to allocate him to a particular establishment for prisoners in that category."
"The allocation of prisoners to training establishments following conviction must form a process distinct from categorisation."
In the concluding sentence it says this at 1.6.1:
"OCA officers must be alert to the danger of allowing his or her conclusions on allocation to influence those on categorisation."
PSI 45/2004
"To inform Governors and staff of revised guidance on prisoner categorisation including provision of specific guidance on recategorisation to category D."
"The specific guidance on recategorisation to category D highlights the importance of weighing time left to serve in the assessment for category D and in particular the extent of any impact on public confidence should a long sentence prisoner abscond. Cases must be decided on their individual merits but to help those making the decisions the guidance is that prisoners must not normally be allocated to open prison any sooner than 2 years before their Parole Eligibility Date (PED) and more than 5 years before their Non Parole Date (NPD) and then only after a proportion of the sentence sufficient to address identified offending behaviour issues and to safeguard public confidence has been spent in a category C prison. Where for exceptional reasons a prisoner with longer than 5 years to NPD is considered for allocation to open prison then the Governing Governor must make the final decision on the case."
"Other changes include a provision for a non-routine categorisation review in any case where the previous decision appears to be unsound."
"In making the categorisation assessment, governors must follow the process set out in the recategorisation forms, obtaining input from those prison staff who know the prisoner best and are best placed to provide insight into the extent of any change or who have specialist relevant information. The... form where this is available will be particularly useful. Other relevant information will include:
Security information...
Reports from the Personal Officer and Prison Probation Officer which give an insight into the prisoner's attitude to his offending and sentence...
Information about any domestic problems, which could impact, on the prisoner's stability and likelihood of trying to escape or abscond.
Reports from the medical officer or psychologist...
The outcome of any offending behaviour programmes..."
"It is essential that prisoners must be assessed as trustworthy and sufficiently low risk before being allocated to open conditions and in making the decision, that governors keep in mind the particularly challenging management issues associated with the low physical security and supervision levels of the open estate."
"In addition to the risk assessment issues listed above (under Process) it is important to bear in mind the damage to public confidence in the Prison Service if a prisoner serving a lengthy sentence were to abscond, particularly if the prisoner had spent a very short period of time in closed conditions and/or still has many years left to serve. Recent Home Office research has highlighted the groups of prisoners who present the highest likelihood of abscond."
"The risks to be assessed may conflict. Likelihood of abscond and risk to the public and damage to public confidence if an abscond occurs will not necessarily be the same and long sentence prisoners who statistically present an average or lower likelihood of abscond may represent a disproportionately high risk to the public should they abscond and/or a high risk of damage to public confidence in the Prison Service's ability to safeguard the public by keeping prisoners in safe custody."
"Every case must be considered on its individual merits but it may help in decision-making to take as a guide that,
Long sentence prisoners should normally be transferred to open prison only having served a sufficient proportion of their sentence in a category D prison to enable them to settle into their sentence and to access any offending behaviour programmes identified as essential to the risk reduction process, and
In the majority of cases it will be inappropriate to transfer a prisoner to open conditions more than 5 years before NPD, and
In the majority of cases it will be inappropriate to transfer a prisoner to open conditions more than 2 years before PED.
In exceptional circumstances earlier downgrading may be necessary to support individual release plans but, to minimise the risk of damage to public confidence, any decisions to downgrade to Category D a prisoner with more than 5 years to serve to NPD must be made by the Governing Governor."
Prison Rules 1999
"Special attention shall be paid to the maintenance of such relationships between a prisoner and his family as are desirable in the best interests of both."
"I have also considered whether the failure explicitly to consider the effect on prisoners who had been properly categorised as category D under the former policy of being recategorised as category C is also a reviewable error. It is another aspect of individual circumstances which were not on the evidence taken into account. While it could be assumed that in general prisoners reclassified in these circumstances would feel very aggrieved and disappointed, in the case of a given individual there may have been some further effect, perhaps because of a medical or psychological condition, which should have informed the decision. While it is open to the defendant to apply its new policy to such persons and to give it enhanced weight, in view of the impact on this group of prisoners of a decision made for reasons unconnected to their conduct, I consider that in principle it was incumbent on the defendant explicitly to take into account consequences to individuals beyond the sense of grievance and disappointment, because those consequences might affect the decision concerning reclassification."
"Miss Gallafent [who on that occasion too represented the Secretary of State] argued that since all those reviewed were in fact facing reclassification from category D to category C the defendant was clearly aware of this. But, again, there is no indication in the evidence that the effect of the move back from category D status on individual prisoners was taken into account. This issue was, however, only briefly addressed at hearing and my decision to allow the application is not based on this ground."
Ms Gallafent told me that this was not a ground in the claim in any event.
Mr Southey's submissions
Ms Gallafent's submissions
My view