WELCOME

Statement for Families and Friends Regarding Use of Advice Line

PAS’ Advice Line is only for prisoners to call.  In order to maximise our caseworkers’ ability to provide telephone advice to those behind bars, we do not take calls on the Advice Line from anyone outside of prison.

Friends, family members and supporters can contact us using the contact form here. This is checked daily and replies generally sent within 10 days. We can provide both generic legal advice and specific advice in relation to an individual’s situation if we are provided with sufficient detail, but we cannot make any contact with prisons or take any action on a prisoner’s behalf via this process.

If you have a relative or friend who has an ongoing case with PAS, our caseworker will only be able to discuss this with you if our client has signed an authority form permitting us to do so.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

“It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.” Nelson Mandela

Prisoners’ Advice Service offers free legal advice and support to adult prisoners throughout England and Wales regarding their legal, human and healthcare rights, conditions of imprisonment and the application of Prison Law and the Prison Rules.  We can also advise women prisoners on matters of Family Law, and those prisoners with issues relating to detention or deportation on Immigration Law.

The charity holds a Public Law contract with the Legal Aid Agency.

It responds to prisoners’ calls for help about their treatment in prison through our telephone Advice Line, Letters Clinic, Outreach Clinics inside prisons, Self Help Toolkits and Information Sheets and quarterly publication, Prisoners’ Legal Rights Bulletin (PLRB). Where appropriate, we take legal action on prisoners’ behalf.  We also provide information within the prison sector.

Acceptable Standards: PAS aims to provide service of a standard acceptable to all our users.  If we fail to do so, we would like to hear about it.  If you would like to know more about our complaints procedures, please contact the office.