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This article explores HM Prison Service policy and the impact of case law on the rights of prisoners to family contact. First, state provision and policy for prisoner-family contact is reviewed and the constraints imposed on contact over the past decade are explored. The article considers the legal challenges to these constraints which have been which made with reference to domestic case law and in the European Court of Human Rights. This article argues that while fathers' rights for indirect contact are upheld, their rights are not respected as much as those of mothers in cases of direct contact and also that men unable to establish family life have their rights further eroded. Drawing upon empirical research findings as well as case law, the relationship between the Prison Act 1952 and the Children Act 1989 is considered and policy recommendations are put forward.
Find out more about the regulation of contact between prisoners and their families below:
