Prison Law

Prison Law is a growing area of law and encompasses a number of different areas. Garden Court has long been involved in challenges to the infringement of prisoners' rights and privileges; challenges to the calculation of length of prison sentences, and the representation of lifers before the Parole Board.

Following recent decisions of the Strasbourg Court and the introduction of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, prisoners are more widely entitled to legal representation at adjudication hearings within the prison system as well as recall hearings before the Parole Board. We have, therefore, broadened our team of prison law practitioners and ensure that all our pupils are appropriately trained. Our team also includes experts in the field of discrimination and welfare benefits - both important issues for prisoners while in prison and once released.

Last year, the prison law team joined forces with members of Chambers' immigration team in response to recent Home Office policy on the detention and security re-categorisation of foreign national prisoners. Together, we have been instrumental in setting up the Foreign National Prisoners' Network - a valuable information exchange network for lawyers working in the field - and produced an information leaflet for legal advisors in this cross-over area of litigation.

The team has also worked closely with the Mubarek Family and others last year to produce an analysis of some of the key recommendations made by Mr Justice Keith in his report on the Inquiry into the death of Zahid Mubarek in HMYOI Feltham.

Click Here to download a copy 'Zahid Mubarek - A legacy for Change' written by members of the Prison Law Team.

The following are examples of some our recent cases in the prison law sphere:

Gibson, Kelly and Bailey v Secretary of State for Justice [2008] EWCA CIv 177 (challenge to the drafting errors in the CJA 2003 relating to early release of certain prisoners)

R (on the application of C) (a child by his litigation friend MS) v Secretary of State for Justice [2008] EWHC 171 (Admin) (challenge to the amendments made by the Secretary of State for Justice to the Secure Training Centre Rules 1998 allowing for a wider use of physical force to restrain minors in secure training centres)

Secretary of State for Justice v David Walker: Secretary of State for Justice v Brett James [2008] EWCA Civ 30 (challenge to the Secretary of State's failure to provide sufficient offending behaviour courses for IPP prisoners before their minimum terms expired).

Civil Clerks

If you would like more information about our Prison Law team email the clerks civilclerks@gclaw.co.uk
or call us on 020 7993 7600. All our second six pupils are able to cover adjudication hearings as well as recall and other Parole Board hearings.

The team

Members of the Prison Law team are listed below - click on their names to go to their profiles.

Barrister Year of Call Email Address Marc Willers 1987 marcw@gclaw.co.uk Dexter Dias 1988 dexterd@gclaw.co.uk Colin Hutchinson 1990 colinh@gclaw.co.uk Stephen Simblet 1991 stephens@gclaw.co.uk Helen Curtis 1992 helenc@gclaw.co.uk Julia Krish 1992 juliak@gclaw.co.uk Pete Weatherby 1992 pweatherby@talk21.com Stephen Knafler 1993 stephenk@gclaw.co.uk Duran Seddon 1994 duran@gclaw.co.uk David Jones 1994 davidj@gclaw.co.uk Shereener Browne 1996 shereenerb@gclaw.co.uk Maya Sikand 1997 mayas@gclaw.co.uk Marina Sergides 2000 marinas@gclaw.co.uk Kate Aubrey-Johnson 2001 kateaj@gclaw.co.uk Sadat Sayeed 2001 sadats@gclaw.co.uk Tim Baldwin 2001 timothyb@gclaw.co.uk Brenda Campbell 2002 brendac@gclaw.co.uk Sareta Ashraph 2002 saretaa@gclaw.co.uk John Beckley 2003 johnb@gclaw.co.uk Stephen Marsh 2005 stephenm@gclaw.co.uk