Daniel Holmes has run the Brighton Marathon in a superb time of 3 hours and 44 minutes, raising a fantastic total of nearly £1000 for the Prisoners’ Advice Service in the process.

All at PAS would like to extend our congratulations to Daniel for both the race and his fundraising effort, and our thanks to all those who generously sponsored him. The funds raised are especially important for a small charity such as PAS, that does work in an area that finds it difficult to draw public support.

It is not too late to donate either, so please do visit Daniel’s fundraising page!

PAS has been granted permission to pursue a Judicial Review case around the refusal by HMP Whitemoor to allow a prisoner’s relative to visit him in prison, a refusal arising because the relative was on licence themselves.

The challenge is based around the failure of the Prison Service to follow their own policy as regards visits in such circumstances, in addition to a potential breach of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which protects the right to a private and family life.

PAS’s Women Prisoners’ Caseworker, Camilla Pandolfini, has acted for two women prisoners in a Judicial Review case in which they successfully challenged a refusal by the prison to grant them Childcare Resettlement Leave (CRL). Both prisoners are the sole carers for children under the age of 16.

A press release with further details of the case may be found in the Reports section, under ‘Articles and Press Releases’.

PAS recently won an Ombudsman’s judgement on behalf of a prisoner at HMP Wakefield, who was being refused possession of a book he had bought because it was not obtained from an approved supplier. The book – ‘Prisoners – Law and Practice’ – had been purchased via an advert in a prisoners’ newspaper by means of a cash disbursement, as agreed beforehand with the prison, but when it arrived it was placed in stored property. There was, however, nothing in the book’s contents that made it inappropriate for the prisoner to own, and it was also freely available in the prison library.

The Ombudsman upheld the complaint. There was nothing inappropriate in the content of the book, and the prison’s decision was unnecessarily bureaucratic. Given that there was no objection to the book in principle, it was recommended that the prisoner should be allowed to keep it in his possession.

PAS has been lucky enough to have one of it supporters running in April’s Brighton Marathon, who is raising funds for the work that we do to support and uphold prisoners’ legal rights.

Daniel Holmes will be running in the event on Sunday 15th April – please visit Daniel’s funding page

PAS has recently been granted permission to pursue to Judicial Review a case around deductions to prisoners’ earnings, a case in which it is representing two clients at different prisons.

This case arises directly from the enactment in 2011 of the Prisoners’ Earnings Act 1996 (through Prison Service Instruction 48/2011). This Act means that prisoners working for external employers will be subject to a 40% net income levy on earnings over £20 per week, a levy that will be paid to the charity Victim Support.

As a result, many prisoners have been placed in a position where they are no longer able to save money in preparation for their release, funds that will be needed to go towards housing and other living costs. Therefore the newly-introduced Act poses a grave threat to rehabilitation in many cases, including those which PAS is currently pursuing.