What do people on remand in prison do?

This isn’t true. You get socialisation after work. If you don’t work, you’re locked up until work finishes. Gym counts as work and you get paid for it. There are very limited recreational gym sessions which rely on goodwill and staffing numbers.

I was on remand for 32 days, exactly a year ago.

Remand prisoners do work (some choose not to so are locked up all day). Work includes learning numeracy, IT, and literacy.

you get unlimited money on your account as a remand prisoner.

You keep the clothes you were detained in, unless they have hoods. Family etc can send in clothes but that takes ages so if you’re only in for a short time it’s not worth it.

It’s truly horrendous, life changing and traumatic. Especially when all charges are dropped once a grown up (not a police officer) has looked at the lack of evidence.

I genuinely don’t think I will recover fully. However, I met some remarkable women and I learnt a lot about myself.

Remand prisoners haven’t been convicted. Your presumption of guilt is the opposite of the way the system is meant to operate - namely “innocent unless proven guilty”.

Because there's never ever been a miscarriage of justice, anywhere in the world....

https://howardleague.org/

Oh would those good reasons be similar to the "good reason" that a pregnant woman was sent to a prison for a crime she didn't commit? (Seema Misra)

Has the whole Post Office scandal of hundreds of wrongful convictions and innocent people being imprisoned and having their lives destroyed completely passed you by? How?

They absolutely CAN have contact with family and friends! Why wouldn't they?

They lose contact with their family and friends. Lose their home as they can't pay the rent. Lose their jobs.

And then they get bullied by the other prisoners, get into debt and start taking Spice. If they weren't already addicted to drugs being on remand is a good place to start.

I too am.really interested in this.

It seems you can be on remand for a long time ( eg Constance Marten and Mark Gordon for a year)

For most people wouldn't this mean you would lose your home as you wouldn't be paying rent/ mortgage? So if you are released you are homeless and your credit rating is shot to pieces.

I know of someone who was sent to prison for 15 months. I'm assuming he also lost his home as well as his job. But I guess that's part of the punishment. I think he would still argue that in his case the punishment didn't fit the crime, but then I expect most people who commit 'white collar' crime would too.

Fewer people than usual are being remanded - there is no space in the prison estate.

Remand prisoners often do choose to work or go to education, because its more interesting than being locked up all day. A lot of remand prisons don't have loads of options for work, because remand populations are fluid by nature, and someone who is here today might be gone by next week, so the opportunities for skilled work are fewer.

As for laundry, most wings have a laundry man who will wash prisoners clothes for them. Prisoners get a mesh laundry bag to put all their stuff in, and it gets washed and dried for them.

Don't believe the hype about prison being like Butlins Pontins maybe. I've worked in prisons for twelve years now, they aren't cushy numbers. A lot of it is bravado, but anyone who genuinely thinks prison is a comfortable place to be, has a HORRIBLE life on the out.

The other series of 'time' was better, set in a men's prison

Fairly realistic

Women's prisons are different too - there's a drama on bbc iPlayer called Time which my friend who is a prison officer says is fairly similar to what happens though it's obviously overdramatic but that's to be expected!

The courts are moving faster these days.

Prisons are full so it's also using the early release scheme to make space

Bollocks. Only people that have committed a crime go to prison? Why do we bother with an appeals process then? Or have you never heard of a miscarriage of justice?

I was intrigued by your 1% number as I had no idea, so went and looked it up. This is from the Prison Reform Trust........

• In 2009, 55,207 people were remanded into custody to await trial.

• In 2009, an estimated 39% of people remanded into custody did not go on to receive a custodial sentence.

• Just under two-thirds of people received into prison on remand awaiting trial are accused of non-violent offences. In 2009, 12% were remanded into custody for theft and handling stolen goods.

• Last year, three-quarters of children remanded by the magistrates’ court, and one-third by the Crown court, were subsequently acquitted or given a community sentence.

• Children were remanded for a week or less on more than 1,100 occasions.

• In the year up to March 2011, 4,421 women were remanded in custody to await trial.

• Women on remand make up 18% of the female prison population.

• Remand prisoners, 15% of the prison population, accounted for 50% of self-inflicted deaths in 2010.

In additon to this, black people, and people of other ethnic minorities are more likely to be held on remand, are statistically on remand for longer and are more likely to be released or aquitted at trial than white people

Aka its a racist system that disproportionately punishes black people and other minorities when they are innocent

Justice delayed is justice denied in a way. Not just for the accused. The justice system has been at times managed by Chris Grayling, Liz Truss and Dominic Raab among others, so you know who I hold largely responsible for the numbers being almost 10,000 people a year.

Bollocks. About 30% of people on remand are released either because the allegations are withdrawn, or they are found not guilty at trial, or they are found guilty of something that does not incur a custodial sentence. Some of the sub postmasters were held on remand -dangerous beasts.

Keeping people on remand is expensive, so it's usually reserved for people who:

• Are considered a risk to others if bailed
• Are considered a flight risk (eg, someone who is known to have the means and contacts to leave the country easily, or has a history of going missing or changing their identity)
• Have broken bail conditions in the past
• Already have a criminal record

They can buy clothes in prison from approved source....Nike,north face etc

Have their own sent in as a one off parcel

They can buy themselves an Xbox, cd's, dvd player from approved source too

It all hinges on if they have money sent in/work to save for it

Oh, and canteen of course!

@girlfriend44
Interesting question 🤔

Not committing crime is a good start though.

If you are on remand but totally innocent , you must have done something or acted a particular way at some point in order for the remand application to be approved. Often these are dangerous individuals with no regard for the justice system and I would imagine that all the posters stating what a travesty it is that they are on remand when potentially innocent, would soon change their tune if they had all the facts and knowledge as to why the person was remanded in the first place.

People are not remanded without good reason.

Ah come on it was funny!!

Also says they can wear their own clothes?
How would that work then?

It varies from prison to prison.

In some prisons you get issued with a mesh laundry bag, which is labelled, and you put your dirty clothes into it and hand it over to be washed. It gets washed and dried, still in the bag, and then handed back to you. The prison laundry is usually staffed by other prisoners.

Some more 'open' prisons might have facilities where you can do your own laundry in your own time, but I don't know how common that is.

In practice, it's also very common for prisoners to try to wash things like socks and underwear in the washbasin in their cell and drape them over a chair or bed frame to dry.

Wearing your own clothes, however, isn't something that's unique to remand prisoners. Loads of prisoners are allowed to wear their own clothes. They usually have a set number of specific items they're allowed to have. It depends what category of prisoner they are, what kind of wing they're on, how well they behave etc. The main restriction on clothing is that you aren't allowed to wear sports team tops or t-shirts with political or offensive slogans/images on them.

In terms of what people do, they fill their time one way or another. Reading, watching TV, playing cards or board games, going to the prison gym, writing letters home etc. There are also things like support groups etc and sometimes organised activities like art/drama groups.

Before anyone says 'Oh, that sounds all right' I can tell you now that it absolutely isn't, whether you're on remand or a convicted prisoner. I've visited some prisons (in a work context - I don't have a family of criminals or anything!) and they're grim as fuck.