Prisoners' Rights in the Context of the European Convention on Human Rights

Abstract

Prisoners in Europe have frequently resorted to the European Commission and Court of Human Rights over the past 30 years. While many applications have been unsuccessful the Court has given a number of important decisions which have had a significant impact on prison law and policy, especially in the United Kingdom. After consideration of the advantages and disadvantages of applying a general human rights treaty to the prison environment the article moves on to examine the decisions of the Commission and Court in relation to a number of specific issues. These are prison conditions, communications with the outside world, prison discipline and release from prison. The article argues that this judicial involvement has been uneven, with the Strasbourg institutions showing a reluctance to intervene in relation to prison conditions or matters of internal administration. Overall while the decisions of the Commission and Court show an aversion to authoritarian approaches to prison management and a strong support for judicial supervision of what happens in prisons, the application of a human rights approach still seems to leave substantial discretion to the prison authorities regarding the underlying philosophy of punishment.