Prison Service Order ORDER NUMBER 4400 Prisoner Communications Chapter 2 The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 Date of update – 29/10/2004 PRISONER COMMUNICATIONS CHAPTER 2: THE PROTECTION FROM HARASSMENT ACT 1997 (STALKING) Overview 1. This Chapter sets out a range of measures designed to promote inter-agency cooperation and sharing of information and to prevent prisoners convicted of, or charged with, offences under the Protection from harassment Act 1997 from continuing to harass their victims from within prison. 2. The Protection from harassment Act 1997, which came into effect on 16 June 1997, provides new measures in the criminal and civil law to deal with stalking and other forms of harassment. It creates two new criminal offences: A summary offence of harassment-with a maximum imprisonment term of 6 months; and An indictable offence involving the fear of violence-with a maximum imprisonment term of 5 years. 3. It also gives criminal courts the power to make a restraining order immediately after convicting a person of either of the two criminal offences to prevent the offender from repeating their behaviour. 4. Victims of stalkers are also able to seek a civil injunction to stop the behaviour set out in respect of the summary offence of harassment. A breach, or attempted breach, of a restraining order or civil injunction, without reasonable excuse, is a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment. Offenders may be subject to a restraining order or injunction in addition to any sentence of imprisonment under the new Act. Prisoners serving a term of imprisonment, or remanded in custody, or returned to prison following a breach of licence, for an unrelated offence, may also be subject to a restraining order or injunction under the protection from harassment Act. Further information on restraining orders and injunctions is set out in Annex A. Policy and output 5. Because of the inherent risk of further harassment (which may constitute a criminal offence) by prisoners remanded in custody for, or convicted of, offences under the new Act, the PSO makes it mandatory to identify such prisoners and for the communications of these prisoners (save official or legally privileged calls/correspondence or those to the CCRC or Samaritans) to be routinely monitored. Standard 6. Prisoners who have been remanded in custody for, or convicted of, offences under the Protection from harassment Act, or who are subject to an injunction or restraining order under the Act must be prevented, as far as reasonably practicable, from making unauthorised contact with their victims and from continuing any harassment from within establishments. 7. To meet this standard, governors are required to take the mandatory action set out in this chapter. All mandatory procedures are shown in italics. Mandatory action and information NOTIFICATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF PRISONERS COVERED BY THIS INSTRUCTION 8. Notification of prisoners who are convicted of, or remanded in custody for, offences under the Act will be forwarded to establishments using the POL1 form, copy attached at Annex B. This will clearly identify theses prisoners together with any injunctions or restraining orders issued under the Act. This form will be completed at the court by the police officer in charge of the case, together with details of the address and telephone number of the victim(s). where the police are not in court it will be the responsibility of the court to notify the Prison Service of details of any restraining orders or injunctions issued. (NB The POL1 form will be replaced in 1999 with the PER from, the Prison Escort Record ). 9. The POL1 will travel from the court to the establishment with the prisoner, in the possession of the officer in charge of the escort. Upon arrival, the officer in charge should hand the form directly to the reception staff for processing. The security department should also be informed so that the routine monitoring of telephone calls and correspondence may be instigated. Mandatory 10. Governors must: (a) identify all prisoners who are convicted of, or remanded in custody for, offences under the Act, or are subject to a restraining order or injunction issued under the Act; (b) record this information on your local Inmate Information System (IIS) and on the prisoners F2050 (c) where a prisoner is received into custody without a relevant POL1, but it appears from the warrants that he or she has been remended or convicted under the Act, or is subject to an injunction or restraining order under the Act, governors must consult the police within24 hours of reception on weekdays (or within 48 hours of reception at weekends) to obtain further information. Information 11. In recording this information on the IIS system, establishments should use an appropriate free text area such as Discipline remarks. The reference number of the PSI should be added and in this way it will possible to produce a summary report locally of those inmates covered by the instruction. This report can be set up by the use of the IIS reporting tool called IQ, with the help of an IQ Application Administrator or via a call to the Prison Service help Desk. NOTIFICATION TO THE PROBATION SERVICE/SOCIAL SERVICES Mandatory 12. When a prisoner has been identified as covered by this instruction, notification must be sent on reception to the Chief Probation Officer in the prisoner’s discharge area using the proforma at Annex C. Where the establishment has been notified that the release of a prisoner under the age of 18 will be supervised by social services, the proforma should be sent to the relevant local social services office. Information 13. Because of the different statutory release arrangements for prisoners which may be affected by additional days awarded (and home detention curfew in due course), the Probation Service has asked for the process at paragraph 12 above to be carried out on reception rather than discharge to ensure that all prisoners are identified. Whilst individual probation services will often already be aware of those prisoners serving more than 12 months, Annex C should still be sent. However, for prisoners remanded for offences under the Act, Annex C is not required, as information on these prisoners will be sent by the court probation officer to the home probation service. SENTENCE PLANNING Mandatory 14. Sentence management and planning procedures must fully address the unusual nature of the offence and the risk posed by these prisoners, and relevant documentation clearly note, in addition to the offence, details of any restraining orders and injunctions. Information 15. The analysis of a prisoner’s offence and the risks posed is central to sentence planning. This process will automatically require the detailed examination of those convicted, remanded or subject to injunctions and restraining orders under the Protection from Harassment Act. 16. In particular: ICA documents should clearly note the nature of the offence; Assessments at the ACR/DCR1 stage and subsequent reviews should address the issue in detail; Sentence planning documents should include a note of restraining orders and injunction; Pre-discharge and discharge reports should include reference to specific issues raised by the offence. 17. In undertaking the risk assessment for sentence planning, attention should be given to past as well as current convictions under the Act. 18. In some cases, the victim(s) of a prisoner convicted under the Act may have contacted the Prison Service Victim Helpline (tel: 0345 585112) to report harassment or voice concerns about possible further harassment. Where this has been taken place, governors should take it into account and reflect it in the sentence planning process. Sex offender treatment programme Information 19. Where a male prisoner is convicted under the Act and sentenced to over 3 years imprisonment, the governor may wish to consider, where appropriate, obtaining an assessment of the prisoner’s suitability for the Sex Offender Treatment Programme. This will need to be obtained from a chartered forensic or clinical psychohlogist or a consultant forensic psychiatrist who is familiar with the programme. Where a prisoner is deemed suitable, completion of the programme should become a sentence planning target. ATTEMPTS TO CONTACT VICTIMS THROUGH CORRESPONDENCE AND USE OF THE CARDPHONE SYSTEM Mandatory 20. a) convicted and/or sentenced prisoners Prisoners convicted of offences under the protection from Harassment Act, must, from the beginning of any period of custody, be subject to the routine monitoring of all outgoing mail and telephone calls save for official and legally privileged communications and those with the CCRC or Samaritans). This must continue until the Governor is satisfied that such monitoring is no longer necessary in the interests of protecting the public. Monitoring must continue if a restraining order or injunction issued under the Act is in force. (b) Unconvicted prisoners Prisoners charged with offences under the Protection from Harassment Act must be subject to the monitoring procedures set out at a) above the beginning of any period of custody and must remain in force until the prisoner’s trial. c) All prisoners Whilst routine monitoring is in force, all outgoing correspondence for these prisoners must be routinely recorded. Information 21. The surveillance of correspondence and telephone calls is designed to prevent prisoners from circumventing Standing Order 5. Governors will need to take appropriate steps to safeguard against abuse of the cardphone and correspondence regulations by instituting such arrangements as are necessary, e.g. booking of calls or holding the prisoner’s phonecards in the wing office to minimise the risk of such prisoners making unauthorised communications. Establishments are also reminded of current arrangements for the random monitoring of correspondence, and telephone calls made by cardphone, to ensure that the requirements of Standing Order 5 are generally being observed within the prison. 22. Because of the obsessive nature of the behaviour covered by the protection from Harassment Act governors must be fully satisfied, particularly in the short term, that prisoners no longer pose a risk to their victim(s) before removing the mandatory monitoring requirements. It is for this reason that monitoring that monitoring processes are mandatory for all unconvicted prisoners until the time of their trial. Where there is any doubt, governors should retain monitoring restrictions. But each case must be considered in the light of all the known circumstances and it may be possible, for example with individual long-term prisoners who may have made sufficient progress in prison, to justify the removal of routine monitoring. VISITS Information 23. Prisoners may attempt to encourage their visitors to carry out further acts of harassment on their behalf. In accordance with Standing Order 5(A) 25 (1) visits may be subject to closer supervision, including being held in the direct hearing of an officer. 24. Where there is evidence of visits being used to encourage further acts of harassment, governors should consider the disallowing of further visits under Prison Rules. BREACHES OR ATTEPTED INJUNCTIONS BREACHES OF RESTRAINING ORDERS OR Mandatory 25. Where the victim requests it, governors must refer any breach or attempted breach of a restraining order or injunction to the police. In other cases, governors have the discretion whether to refer the matter to the police. Referral is likely to be most appropriate where there have been previous attempted or actual breaches of a restraining order or injunction. 26. Where breaches or attempted breaches are referred to the police, governors must ensure that all relevant information is forwarded to them. This must include details of any previous breached or attempted breaches that may have been dealt with under the prison discipline system. Information 27. Where a breach or attempted breach of a restraining order or injunction is referred to the police staff should also consider charging the prisoner under Prison Rule 47(20) (YOI Rule 50 (20)), as such behaviour contravenes the provisions of Standing Order 5B or G. The adjudication should be opened and adjourned pending the police investigation (for further advice on this see appendix 3 of the Prison Discipline Manual). 28. Where the matter is not referred to the police then it should be dealt with internally through the prison discipline system. 29. An attempt to commit a breach of a restraining order is an offence under section 1 of the Criminal Attempts Act 1981. Further information on this is set out in Annex A. RELEASE OF PRISONERS Release on temporary licence Information 30. The arrangements for considering an application for release on temporary licence from prisoners convicted under the Act are set out in IG 36/95. In considering applications, the risk assessment process should take careful account of the nature of the offence and the position of the victim. Within arrangements agreed under National Standards, the Probation Service will ensure that victims of all prisoners convicted under the Act are informed where such a prisoner is to be temporarily released. Mandatory 31 The Chief Probation Officer in the prisoner’s discharge area must be informed in all cases where a prisoner convicted under the Act is granted a period of temporary release, through use of form ROTL 9. Discharge 32. The Probation Service in the area to which the prisoners is due to be discharged will have been notified of any prisoner covered by this Instruction, on reception (see para. 12 & 13 above). Annexes 33 Annex A - Restraining Orders and Injunctions Annex B - POL 1 FORM Annex C - Proforma for notifying Probation/Social Services. Annex A PROTECTION FROM HARASSMENT ACT 1997 Restraining Orders and Injunctions Section 5 (1) of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 provides that a criminal court may make a restraining order in addition to any other sentence which it chooses to impose, to prevent the convicted offender repeating his or her behaviour. Under Section 3 of the Act, a civil court may issue, on application from the victim, an injunction to prevent the defendant from pursuing any conduct which amounts to harassment. This may be in respect of a prisoner on remand. Section 5(5) of the Act creates a criminal offence if a defendant fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with a restraining order. Section 3(6) makes similar provision for a breach of an injunction. However, section 3(3) to 3(9) of the Act are not yet in force and, for the time being, a breach of is not a criminal offence, though it is in contempt of court. No date has yet been set for when the remaining sections of the Act will come into force. Such an offence does not have to be heard at the court which makes the actual order. The defendant can be charged and arraigned before the court responsible for the in which the prison is located. An attempt to commit a breach of a restraining order is an offence by virtue of section 1 of the Criminal Attempts Act 1981. It is important to note that any attempt has to be something more than a preparatory act. For example buying a phone card would be a preparatory act and not in itself a criminal offence. However, dialling a victim’s telephone number, but failing to get through, would be a criminal attempt. ANNEX B SUSPECT / PRISONER – EXCEPTIONAL RISK FORM POL 1. For completion by the police officers handing over a prisoner to prison custody or prisoner escort service or transferring a suspect or prisoner between police forces Force PERSONAL DETAILS: SURNAME FORENAMES Charge(s) / suspected offence(s) Station NRO No. Prison No. (if known) SEX DOB. This person has been: tick appropriate box Arrested At …………………………………….Court Remanded in Custody Committed for trial in custody Sentenced to Imprisonment Next Court Appearance ………………………………… Court …………………………………………………… Prison …………………………………………………………….. THIS PERSON IS REASONABLY SUSPECTED OF BEING AN EXCEPTIONAL RISK FOR ONE OR MORE OF THE REASONS GIVEN BELOW Violent Suicide / Self Harm Drugs Escape Risk Possible further charges Medical condition Mental condition Vulnerable FURTHER INFORMATION (to be completed by the police). FURTHER INFORMATION (to be completed by the police surgeon). Signed…………………………………………………………….date…………………………….. Contact point: (Name)………………………………………….signed …………………………………….. Tel. No……………………………………………………………date ………………………………………. Custody Record Noted? Confidential Medical Record attached? Signed…………………………………………….date……………… Yes No PER form? Yes no don’t know Annex C NOTIFICATION OF RECEPTION OF A PRISONER CONVICTED OF OFFENCES UNDER THE PROTECTION FROM HARASSSMENT ACT, OR SUBJECT TO RESTRAINING ORDERS OR INJUNCTIONS ISSUED UNDER THE ACT Prisoner’s full name, with all known aliases Prison Number Date of Birth Details of Offence Name of Court Sentence Date of Sentence Address of Prisoner When Charged Address of Prisoner, proposed for Release (if different) Details and Address of Victim(s) * Automatic Release Date (ARD) Conditional Release Date (CRD) Parole Eligibility Date (PED) Non-parole Date (NPD) I write to advise you that the above named person has recently been received into this establishment. This notification enables you to note your records and to take any action necessary in relation to supervision on release; offering voluntary supervision, if appropriate and / or action in relation to victims. Signature Name and position * NB: ANY AVAILABLE DETAILS ABOUT VICTIM(S) MUST NOT BE DISCLOSED TO THE PRISONER.