Inter Prison Visits & Calls

From Prison Service Order Prisoner Communications
Ch. 4 Prisoners’ Use of Telephones
Inter-Prison telephone calls

Where prisoners who are either close relatives or partners are detained in different prisons, in order to facilitate regular contact by telephone, the prisons concerned must agree between them that one prisoner may be permitted to receive a call on an official telephone at a time convenient to the both prisons (i.e. the timing of the call has to be booked in advance); the other prisoner can then call that number using a Pinphone. Prisoners will not be able to dial extensions and will need to use the direct dial number or go through the operator. Consideration to the timing of these calls will be needed in these cases. The call will be recorded at the originating establishment, thus meeting any security considerations. Such calls will be permitted at the discretion of an Operational Manager

Inter-prison visits

From PSI 16/2011 Providing Visits and Services to Visitors

5.13 Visits may be allowed, on application, between close relatives when both parties are prisoners at separate establishments.

5.14 For visits purposes close relatives are defined as a spouse/partner (including a person – whether of the same or different sex – with whom the prisoner was living as a couple in an established relationship immediately prior to imprisonment) parent, child, brother, sister (including half – or step – brothers and sisters), civil partner, fiancé or fiancée (provided that the Governor is satisfied that a bona fide engagement to marry exists), or a person who has been acting in loco parentis to a prisoner, or a person to whom the prisoner has been in loco parentis. Grandparents and those who have clearly demonstrated the intention to register a civil partnership but have not yet done so may also be included within this definition of close relative for the purposes of social visits. This definition of “close relative” is distinct from the interpretation of a prisoner’s “immediate family” which appears in Chapter 2 Section 2 of the Public Protection Manual.

5.15 Where a request is made for an inter-prison visit involving two prisoners who would not normally be held in the same type of establishment due to gender or age, Governors should still make reasonable efforts to accommodate the visit subject to security considerations. Population Management Section may be consulted for advice as to the most suitable location for the visit. Subject to security requirements and the availability of transport and accommodation, arrangements may be made for inter-prison visits to take place at three-monthly intervals, and each prisoner must surrender one visiting order. Each visit should last as long as local circumstances permit. Where inter prison visits prove exceptionally difficult to organise Governors should consider the use of video-link facilities as an alternative. The use of video-links for legal matters and official business will continue to take precedence.