Practicalities of Release Plans for Foreign Life Sentence Prisoners

Foreign national lifers are subject to parole reviews in the same way as British nationals. The Parole Board can recommend their transfer to open conditions and can direct their release. In dealing with foreign lifers, the Parole Board follows the same directions (set down by the Secretary of State) and applies the same law as in other cases. However, these similarities in the legal framework mask some very important differences at a practical level. On release, many foreign lifers will not be subject to probation supervision in the UK but will be deported. This means that the usual sort of release plan, which the Probation Service will approve for domestic prisoners, has no relevance. Yet lifers will frequently need a release plan because this will help to persuade the Board that their risk can be managed in the community. What are foreign lifers to do? This article offers some brief suggestions.

In the case of R v Parole Board ex parte White, the High Court held that the Parole Board must consider the risk to the public in general, rather than just the British public, when deciding whether a life sentence prisoner is suitable for release. This case is old (it was decided in 1994) but it remains the law. In consequence, if a foreign lifer is to be deported, the Parole Board must assess the risk he or she poses in the country of origin and not in the UK. Having a robust and full release plan can often be the best way of persuading the Parole Board to direct a person’s release. The case of ex parte White means that the release plan must focus on the country of origin, not the UK.

A Home Probation Officer is responsible for ensuring that British prisoners have a workable release plan. Foreign lifers will be allocated a Home Probation Officer but the HPO will not draw up a plan for supervision in the UK. It is currently unclear which part of NOMS has responsibility for assisting foreign lifers with release plans. Most lifers will need to show that they will have stable accommodation, opportunities for financial support or employment, and access to any necessary healthcare in their own country. It may often be difficult for people who have been sentenced to life imprisonment in the UK to have access to probation and parole facilities in another country. Life sentence prisoners may lose contact with friends and family who are far away, so that they cannot look to the same sources of post-release personal support as British prisoners. Very many countries do not have the high degree of social welfare as can be accessed in the UK and other European states. Lifers may have no way of accessing information about social welfare schemes in their own country.

There is no hard and fast way of dealing with these problems. If you are a foreign national lifer, it is worth contacting your solicitor well in advance of your parole review so that you can maximise the opportunities for formulating a release plan and for making sure that all its constituent parts are put into place. Your solicitor will give you individualised advice but can also write to the Probation Service or to LRRS or to your Lifer Manager for assistance. Your embassy should offer you at least some information or assistance.

By the time that British prisoners ask the Parole Board to direct release, they will often have served a period in open conditions. The current Directions to the Parole Board say: ‘A period in open conditions is essential for most life sentence prisoners…. It allows the testing of areas of concern in conditions that more closely resemble those that the prisoner will encounter in the community often after having spent many years in closed prisons’. Successful resettlement activities in open conditions help to persuade the Parole Board that release is appropriate.

Open conditions may not bring the same opportunities for foreign as for British nationals. Foreign lifers may not require ROTL to rebuild family ties. Under immigration law, they may not be entitled to undertake paid work or to study. Prisoners in this position who nevertheless have a full release plan may be able to move straight from closed conditions to release on the basis that resettlement in open conditions is unnecessary.

On the other hand, open conditions may enable foreign prisoners to undertake voluntary activities or more generally to prove that they can cope with less secure conditions. Depending on individual circumstances, a period in open conditions may enable foreign prisoners to regain skills and other experience of life in the community. These skills and experiences can then be fed into a release plan, making release quicker from open conditions than from closed. Lifers will need to discuss the relative pros and cons of open conditions with a solicitor. Again, it is advisable to do this well in advance of the Parole review.

You may find that a lot will depend on how much your own government is willing to give assistance in formulating a release plan. If your embassy is willing to help you find housing and a pathway to employment, a number of the obstacles set out above may well fall away.

Finally, foreign prisoners may be able to transfer their sentence to their country of origin. The Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons has been signed by European and other states including the USA and Canada. It enables prisoners sentenced in the UK to return to their country of nationality to complete their sentence. Prisoners cannot currently be transferred without their consent. The UK government as well as the prisoner’s own government will need to agree to the transfer. If a lifer is transferred, he or she will continue to serve a life sentence. It will then be for the prison and parole authorities of the receiving country to determine eligibility for parole. The Convention may hold little benefit for lifers from countries administering life sentences without parole or from countries where pre-parole imprisonment would be much longer than in the UK. However it may well be worth making enquiries via a request/complaint form.

Judith Farbey is a barrister at Tooks Chambers, London, where she specialises in prison law and other areas of human rights law. www.tooks.co.uk