Article

Remedies for breaches of prisoners’ rights in the European Prison Rules

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Abstract

This article looks into the architecture of remedies for breaches of the right of prisoners not to be subjected to inadequate conditions of detention under the revised 2020 European Prison Rules (EPR). It seeks to expound the consistency and rationality of the relevant provisions of the 2020 EPR from the perspective of relevant principles and specific prescriptions of European prison law. For the purpose of the present article, the term ‘European prison law’ encompasses rules and standards set out in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, practice of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the provisions of the EPR. The article finds that, in this context, there is sufficient coherence in the relevant principles of European prison law – faithfully codified in the 2020 EPR – providing clear guidance to European States on how to put in place a system of remedies for breaches of prisoners’ rights and how to ensure its effective operation in practice.

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Chapter
This chapter introduces and highlights the importance of well-functioning complaint systems in prisons. The chapter identifies and briefly discusses a number of key themes that are addressed in the chapters of this edited volume.
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Resumen: El funcionamiento de los mecanismos de peticiones y quejas que están a disposición de la población reclusa puede darnos una información muy valiosa sobre la situación de nuestro sistema penitenciario. En este artículo analizamos la percepción de los Servicios de Orientación y Asistencia Jurídica Penitenciaria sobre este instrumento y los datos sobre los asuntos por los que las personas presas consultan estos servicios. Palabras clave: peticiones y quejas; prisión; calidad de vida; MQPL; Servicios de Orientación Penitenciaria; SOAJP; Derecho penitenciario. Abstract: The functioning of the mechanisms of requests and complaints of the prison population can give us very valuable information about the situation of our prison system. In this article we analyse the perception of the Prison Legal Guidance and Assistance Services on this instrument and the data on the matters for which inmates consult these services.
Chapter
This Chapter looks into the manner in which the issue of prison overcrowding is addressed under the European Convention on Human Rights. It examines, in particular, the legal context in which the European Court of Human Rights leading case-law on the matter—Muršić v Croatia—has developed, and the effects which that case-law has created in the European legal landscape. In the context of this inquiry, the Chapter first analyses the concept of ‘prison overcrowding’. It finds that there is a lot of uncertainty over the main characteristics of that concept but that it may be best understood from the perspective of a ‘totality of conditions’ test, which focuses on the qualitative aspects of imprisonment rather than any pre-determined numerical criteria. The Chapter further provides an overview of the evolving Convention case-law concerning the rights of prisoners and, in particular, regarding the protection from prison overcrowding. In this connection, the Chapter analyses in detail the principles developed in the Muršić judgment. It finds that these principles are duly followed as the relevant law both in the Court’s subsequent processing of cases and at the wider European level, notably in the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The Chapter cautions, however, that this coherence in the case-law may not be sufficient to address the problem of prison overcrowding and that the European legislature and policy makers will need to reflect on the possibility of agreeing over the common binding minimum standards of material conditions of detention.
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