Prisons: the Rule of Law, Accountability and Rights

Project Information

PRILA

Grant agreement ID: 679362

DOI

10.3030/679362

Project closed

EC signature date 23 March 2016

Start date 1 April 2016

End date 31 December 2022

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 428 342,50

EU contribution

€ 1 428 342,50

Coordinated by

THE PROVOST, FELLOWS, FOUNDATION SCHOLARS & THE OTHER MEMBERS OF BOARD, OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN
Ireland

Periodic Reporting for period 5 - PRILA (Prisons: the Rule of Law, Accountability and Rights)

Reporting period: 2022-04-01 to 2022-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Prisons are places very far from public view. What happens in prisons is rarely directly experienced or seen by members of the public. Through inspection, monitoring and oversight of what happens in prison that we can get a glimpse into life in prison. Because of this distance from the public gaze, but also because of the particular circumstances of prison life, including socio-economic and health inequalities, the protection of human rights and the rule of law in prison can be at risk. There is a need for robust oversight of what happens in prison, as well as opportunities to bring concerns to bodies which can do something about them.

Accountability is fundamental to the rule of law in prisons and a just and effective European prison system. International human rights law places a great deal of trust in, and emphasis on, inspection, monitoring and complaints procedures as ways to protect human rights and prevent ill-treatment in prisons. This project, Prisons: the rule of law, accountability, and rights (PRILA) examines the legal framework and, through comparative legal analysis, questions whether there is a distinctively European approach to the regulation of prisons.

PRILA also seeks to understand how prison staff and people in prison feel about the inspection, monitoring and oversight of prisons. The project also explores how staff of bodies such as prison inspectorates, Ombudsmen, complaints bodies and prison monitors feel about and experience their work.

The project examines what kinds of accountability mechanisms for prisons exist, and what the effects of them are. PRILA will also examine how a visit from an international monitoring body to a prison is experienced.

It is important for us to understand more about how accountability, inspection and oversight works in the prison context. These systems are designed to protect the rights of everybody in the prison system, and to uphold the public interest in prisons being run in a just and safe manner. It is also important to make sure that our laws and regulations in Europe for these mechanisms are the best they can be. It is especially important to make sure that European standards are world-class.

PRILA helps us to understand:

1. How prisoners experience accountability structures, and rights;
2. How prison managers and prison officers/guards experience monitoring and external scrutiny;
3. How staff of bodies like Ombudsmen and inspectorates experience their work, and challenges in their work;
4. How a visit from an inspection and monitoring body is experienced;
5. What kinds of accountability structures exist in European prisons;
6. How types of accountability structures are related to other indicators of penal regimes, such as prison overcrowding; and
7. Whether there is a distinctive European way for accountability in prisons, by comparing European law with that of the United States and other jurisdictions.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

PRILA has engaged in comparative legal analysis of the regulation of inspection, monitoring and complaints in the prison context. The project has also found that European human rights law could be strengthened, particularly in the area of inspection and monitoring. The international human rights law framework, particularly the United Nations’ Optional Protocol to the Prevention of Torture and the United Nations’ Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Mandela Rules), has advanced since the conclusion of the European Prison Rules in 2006. The commentary to the European Prison Rules, which expands on the content of those rules and guides their interpretation, has been revised. PRILA was pleased to see changes in the sections on inspection and monitoring.

The PRILA research team has completed interviews and surveys with prisoners in Ireland, finding out about their experiences of inspection, complaints and access to the courts. It has also completed interviews with senior prison staff and started interviews with frontline prison staff, asking them about their experiences of the complaints procedures, visits from inspection and monitoring bodies, and the role of the courts. PRILA has completed this work now also in Germany, and is noting interesting differences between the approaches, finding that the more formalized and longer-embedded systems for complaint resolution in Germany appear to mean that staff are more comfortable with such structures. Results of our work in Ireland have been published in the European Journal of Criminology.

PRIILA has also conducted the very first survey of all (then) EU28 countries to find out what oversight bodies exist for prisons in Europe. This work provides the first insights into the types of structures which exist, and notes that most EU countries have signed and ratified OPCAT. Compliance with all provisions of OPCAT is, however, more patchy. We also see some evidence that countries which comply with some central features of OPCAT tend to comply with its other provisions. Results of this work have been published in the New Journal of European Criminal Law.

PRILA was also the first research project ever to observe a visit from the CPT in real time. This groundbreaking work involved hours of observation, interviews and surveys with people in prison, prison staff, prison managers, and senior officials associated with the visit of the CPT to Ireland in 2019.

PRILA has also produced briefing papers for people in prison and staff, and hosted an international workshop on domestic and international oversight in April 2020.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

PRILA is creating a new kind of scholarship which explores the work of accountability bodies and how they are experienced in the prison environment. PRILA is providing the first account of how external mechanisms of achieving accountability in prisons, such as Ombudsmen, inspectors, and judicial review, operate, and whether there is a distinctive European approach to the rule of law in prisons. PRILA has already found gaps in the European protections for human rights in prisons when it comes to oversight, and suggested that they need to be strengthened. PRILA has provided the first empirical assessment of how people in prison and staff view and experience oversight bodies. PRILA has created the first survey of European oversight bodies and the first examination of a visit from the CPT.

Key outcomes:
1. PRILA will create a new kind of scholarship: accountability work in prisons and its effects.
2. PRILA will create the first comprehensive account of how external mechanisms of oversight affect penal power and penal legitimacy.
3. PRILA seeks to improve how the rule of law applies in prisons, help to improve policy, and create more just and effective prison systems.
4. Dissemination through academic channels and to policymakers, prison staff and prisoners through briefing papers, workshops, and final conference.

It is very important to the research team that the findings are made accessible to prison staff, people in prison, staff of oversight bodies, policymakers and the public. This is critical as prisons play a crucial role in fulfilling and advancing the public interest in protecting rights, promoting the rule of law and ensuring our prisons are run as well as they can be. PRILA looks forward to publishing briefing papers on its work, and to hosting workshops and a conference to bring its findings to a variety of audiences.

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