What do people on remand in prison do?

[girlfriend44]

Just wondered as its says they don't have to work, what else would there be to do then?
Also says they can wear their own clothes?
How would that work then?

Prisons also have mixed remand/convicted wing and don't as a blanket policy pay for chapel/faith activities.

Restrictions around sentence length dictating activity allocation will also vary from prison-prison.

Engagement with maths and English is massively encourage but again the compulsion to engage is a decision for each prison.

I did my own laundry in my sink. The remand prisoner in charge of laundry (a role she was paid for) was a fucking nightmare and wielded it as a source of power over some groups of women. She was in no way supervised, in fact a blind eye is the best way to describe her supervision.

Gym was available as work, for which you were paid, and about once a fortnight, as recreation which you would forego “fresh air” for. “Fresh air” was only available if there were enough staff and no one had kicked off with someone from the next wing but it was supposed to be twice a day.

I did say it's been a while and, like most 'government services', I suspect things have gone downhill due to lack of funding and staff.

Well, it was only a guess. 😉

You can say whatever you like, but the statistics say between 30-40% of remand 'prisoners' do not go on to serve a custodial sentence. Either the allegations are dropped or they are found not guilty or they are found guilty of something that doesn't attract a 'further' prison sentence.

To add to @Neverpostagain’s post, almost all
of the women I met were being exploited in some way by older men. Whether it be drugs charges or theft, one was a custody case which had turned very nasty, one was an extradition case which centred around a family member’s involvement with a gang. These experiences were borne out when I googled the women after I left, I sort of tick them off as their cases are completed. Exploited by men. Almost all of them.

Just to go back to the length of remand, any terrorism case is not going to be heard within 6-8 months. Absolutely not in this country. Include in this complex financial crimes and anything to do with other nation states involvement such as spying or espionage. There are plenty of long term remand prisoners.

My neighbour was held on remand for over a year before being found not guilty. He lost his job as well. He sued the police for wrongful arrest & won, they also trashed his flat looking for evidence. The judge at his trial said he should never have been arrested. The police spent a year looking for any evidence that would stick, the main thing they used was that it was his best friend who had committed the crime. They turned up with armed officers to arrest him one Sunday morning, I ended up being three hours late to pick up ds from his dad's as they had all his property in the communal stairwell of our block & they wouldn't move it so I could get out.

They're just dressed normally. To be fair in most female jails they can wear their own clothes anyway remanded or sentenced and a lot of male jails are similar. It just depends on the jail. Some allow enhanced and remand to wear own clothes some allow everyone. It works fine no different.

As for work although they don't have to.woek many opt to do work or education because it's more time out of their cell.

As a JP, I can confirm this. The decision to remand someone is not taken lightly by any imagination as you are depriving them of their liberty (obvs) and is taken after hearing representations from both the Prosecutor and the Defendant. There are a number of criteria that have to be satisfied for either scenario.

He got a 3 month sentence?

Can't have been that minor.

How does it work with underwear and bras.
Do you wear your own and what happens when a woman needs a new bra etc.

Hmmn. Over 80% of "on remand" prisoners are found guilty.

The remaining less than 20% are found "not guilty" which is not the same as being found "innocent".

It has to be a pretty serious crime if you're held in prison until trial.

And there are generally some huge arrows pointing at you, such as evidence or past criminal convictions.

Nope, as much as I have sympathy for the tiny minority of people who become "found not to have deserved being on remand", it's not a priority.

"needs" is a relative term

The remaining less than 20% are found "not guilty" which is not the same as being found "innocent".

In English law you are either guilty or innocent.

Let's just hope you are never one of the 20% who are locked up yet are found 'not guilty'

?

It is true that there is a legal maximum time for remand without trial. But it is a simple process to extend it (again and again ...). I know someone who was recently on remand for over 18 months before trial, due to the woeful delays in the court system. And then found not guilty!!

Troll the Internet.

From prison?

At the time of your post, no-one had said what a travesty it is that they haven’t been convicted yet. Someone said it can be harder because you haven’t been convicted yet, and another poster spoke of the figures of those who are on remand then released. No-one said it’s a travesty to detain before conviction.

CranfordScones simply didn’t say that.

@Spangletwat all the best for the beginning of CBT tomorrow. I'll be thinking about you as I do my mildly annoying tasks (that seem way less irritating just now than they did before this thread).

no one can troll the internet from prison

@Neverpostagain

firstpregnancy1
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.

""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. '"

These are entirely two separate issues though. Someone's reason for being remanded and the end result are wildly different. People are remanded only if certain criteria is met. One of those criteria is how serious an offence is, but more often than not there are many other factors determining why this is necessary.
The fact that, according to your sources, 30% are released, is completely separate and definitely does not indicate that 30% of people on remand should not be there. Can you really think of no reasons why a victim may withdraw their allegations? It happens a lot and definitely does not mean that a fair conclusion of a persons innocence can be drawn simply because of a withdrawn allegation.

The whole thing is so incredibly complex and there are many many factors at all points it just simply isn't fair to look at it in such a simple way that you have. I'm not by any means saying the system is perfect but I am saying that by and large the vast majority of people on remand are there for good reason .

@dreamfield

firstpregnancy1
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.

"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?'"

This is just different and not what the thread was discussing