What do people on remand in prison do?

For some of the women I met, their means of earning a living (sewing machine, iron, cooking equipment) was stolen from their homes during their remand. They had to rely on the goodwill of friends or neighbours to secure their houses. For others, they lost their tenancies and credit ratings whilst on remand.

Your “offender manager” will help you pause debt payments, but not help you keep up with bills. The phones don’t have a facility where you can call a bank and press 1 for X or 2 for Y. Fortunately, I added my banks number to my phone list and just left it ringing until a person answered, this allowed me to keep up with bills but that was luck rather than design. It’s a devastating thing to happen and my circumstances make me absolutely rage at the injustice.

This is a really interesting thread. Thanks for all the contributions from people who have first hand knowledge.

I often think if we were serious about cutting crime we would treat prisoners better so they come out better equipped for the world outside.

The number of people held on remand who are found not guilty is very shocking to me. What a devastating thing to happen to you.

There's many awaiting trial past the 6 month mark....but those pesky barristers striking left delays, not to mention covid

That's shocking @thecatneuterer

@girlfriend44

Exactly thanks what an idiotic answer I got, why do some people bother to answer.🙄

You've not seen @TwoLeftSocksWithHoles before then? I generally find their comments quite funny- a bit of light relief .

My experience was there were a not insignificant number of prisoners there for over 6/8 months. Same because they were in multi handed cases with defendants all over the country, some were fighting extradition, some were just quite frankly dangerous and should probably have been in a treatment or rehabilitation environment but were awaiting trial.

Really? I'm sure the man I knew was in for much longer than that. To be fair it was around 30 years ago, but I don't think I've mis remembered

The legal maximum for remand was extended from 6 months to 8 month due to covid. It does sometimes go over, but rarely

I know someone who was on remand for 18 months. He was completely innocent. Back story - he and his wife had recently moved to a small town and on his road happened to live people from his original country. They had invited him round for a drink at exactly the time the police raided in connection with an OCG. They couldn't be persuaded that he had only just met them, didn't even know their names and had no involvement.

18 months later he was released without charge.

He spent his time doing A levels and helping teach basic literacy to other prisoners.

They're normally kept on a separate wing and yes can wear their own clothes but no other privileges. It's often worse for them as they don't work so can't get extra money/canteen/gym time etc. in my experience of working in a prison they just wait for their court date, they're always innocent too and not afraid to tell you 🙄

Remand prisoners typically can’t do the higher paid jobs as they won’t get “vetting” to work on maintenance, gardening etc. also, sentences over 6 months are entitled to opportunities like open university etc. because remand is open ended, you could be there for a year or more but not get these opportunities.

They do what convicted prisoners do. Only with less restrictions and rules.

depends how you define "local". A prison might be classed as "local" - does not mean that it is.

And "local" to what? The court where you are going to be tried? Which might not be local to you at all

How do you define local? There aren’t women’s remand prisons all over the country unfortunately.

This is worse by far for the vapers who are not on remand a vape pack is like £17 and they get a maximum of £25 on their canteen for phone calls and stamps etc along with any food or puzzle books etc.

If they are on remand it will be a local jail

phone calls cost money. Email and video calls very rarely available. letters ok, but very slow due to waiting for censorship, and also entirely dependant on literally skills of both parties. And really - how close do you feel to somebody you have only had letter contact with for a couple of years?

It makes no difference to day to day life, only administrative matters which are all put into the system when you arrive.

I am sorry you had a horrible experience. However, this is true. It might not be the case where you were but it is true of the prisons I work in

The laundry person gets paid for it, it’s a highly political issue though and caused as much beef on my wing as anything else. I ended up doing it by hand in my sink which was only possible as I was in my own room.

Email a prisoner, phone calls, prisoner video.... letters.... plenty of ways to keep in contact

some prison wings have a laundry room.

Interesting question op, and one I’d never really thought about before. To be honest, hadn’t really realised that ‘on remand’ meant they were innocent (or not proven guilty). I think I assumed it was a halfway state between court case and sentencing or between court and deciding where they’ll end up.

well one reason is often the distance they are away from family and friends who often cant afford the time or money for round trips of many hours to visit