UK: Double punishment for foreign prisoners
01 March 2006
An admission from the Home Office, in the run-up to the May local elections, that over 1,000 foreign prisoners had been released from jail without consideration of deportation and without any subsequent monitoring meant that the tabloid newspapers were able to claim the scalp of the Home Secretary, and boosted the election campaign of the British National Party. The irony that the climate of racialised hysteria was one the government had itself cultivated, appeared to be lost on most of the parties concerned, as was the fact that of the 1000-plus prisoners identified, only 150 were serious offenders.
For ex-prisoners though the impact was immediate and terrifying. In the attempt to head off the tabloid campaign, police and immigration officers carried out morning raids on ex-prisoners all over the country, many of them Jamaican nationals with family lives long-established in the UK, and no history of offending since release from jail. One ex-prisoner, detained in Leeds, was four years out of jail, had indefinite leave to remain, a home, a job, and a child in the UK. Anecdotal evidence confirms the furore has impacted on sentences handed out to foreign nationals too, with non-UK offenders receiving disproportionate sentences, and, at Belmarsh Crown Court, one Judge Karroll, stating in open court that he had long refrained from issuing recommendations to deport on the basis that the Home Office would ignore him.
Prime Minister Tony Blair has gone on record pledging to seek to deport all foreign prisoners at the end of their sentence automatically. The double punishment of foreign national prisoners has meant that large numbers of prisoners whose sentences have ended have remained in jail while the Home Office decides what to do with them. In many cases prisoners agree to be returned to countries where their safety is at serious risk, rather than face further extended periods in custody. The reality is the opposite of that reported by the tabloids - far from large numbers of foreign prisoners being released - most foreign prisoners are denied access to sentence planning and resettlement advice, offending behaviour courses etc, while going through their sentence unsure of their fate, often being held for immigration detention at the end of their sentence, with their family life in shreds.
The Guardian, BBC News, Home Office press department 1-8 May 2006