Prison Law Podcast Swain & Co Solicitors

Parole, what we have learned from the pandemic, with Parole Board member Robert Mckeon

This podcast brought to you by the Prison Law team joined by Barrister, Matthew Stanbury of Garden Court North to discuss some of the raising concerns in Prisoner Category A reviews within the English and Welsh Prison System.

They will be discussing matters concerning;

•The current situation of the Security Categorisation system and concerns of detainees managing to escape the prison
•Transparency of the categorisation reviews; is the prison services trying to stop prisoners been released to the community by hiding information?
•Has rehabilitation been considered in terms of downgrading categories, are the high-security estate focusing on security rather than rehabilitation?
•Do the prisoners have the ability to show that their risk is lower in terms of resources available to them, does the MOJ meet the demand for programs in the high-security estate?
•Does the Cat As team treat prisoners who are maintaining innocence differently, in terms of releasing/downgrading them compared with other prisoners?
•The possibilities of a Cat A Prisoner being moved to open conditions.

This podcast will:
- Looks at Imprisonment for Public Protection(IPP) and share their thoughts and experiences around this area
- Looks at how IPP prisoners have significantly penalised by the prison system
- Explore Recalls in terms of IPP prisoners and how the system treated unfairly on individuals and keeping them in prisons longer than they should be
- Explore gender discrimination within the prison system and how it has affected IPP prisoners
- Share their experiences on lack of understanding of 'parole board statutory release test' by the authorities
- Explore further options on what could be done, moving forward, to release IPP prisoners as quickly as possible.

Dean Kingham and John Turner of Swain and Co Solicitors are joined by the Former Chief Executive of HM Prison and Probation Service, Phil Wheatley to discuss this topic and in doing so they look ahead and discuss whether the current restrictive regime will continue once the pandemic is over.

This Podcast brought to you by Dean Kingham and John Turner at Swain & Co Solicitors joined by the Chief Executive of the Parole Board, Martin Jones.

They will be discussing;
The changes to the parole process over the last few years.

The impact that the Coronavirus had on Prisoners and their families and the approach to that issue by some of the key organisations such as the Secretary of State.

The impact that John Worboy's case had on the openness and transparency of the parole board decisions and the raising interests of the public on how parole board decisions are made, how the assessment of risk is been carried out as well as how the parole process is been carried out overall.

Since the John Worboys judgment, the Parole Board increasing openness to get a better view of what goes on inside a parole hearing room. Has it gone far enough?