Prison’s external escort policy reviewed following human rights breach

Monday 22 April 2024

The prison’s external escort policy was revised last year following a court ruling which found that a prisoner had his human rights breached after being forced to attend his father's funeral in handcuffs, it has emerged.

In December 2022, the Court of Appeal ruled that former Central Market jeweller Darius Pearce had his human rights breached after being forced to attend his father's funeral in handcuffs due to a risk assessment that was "incapable of justification".

Pearce was jailed for seven-and-a-half years for three counts of money laundering in 2021.

He had applied for a temporary release licence in order to attend the funeral or, if this was deemed unacceptable, to be escorted by prison officers.

Pictured: Darius Pearce, who ran a business in the Central Market, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years for three counts of money laundering in 2021.

At the time, prison guidelines at La Moye stated that the starting point for any escorted release would be that inmates with more than two years remaining on their sentence would have to be cuffed at all time – although this would be subject to a risk assessment.

The risk assessment had deemed that Pearce was, according to a Court of Appeal judgment, "too high a risk to be permitted to attend the funeral unless in handcuffs".

He applied to the Royal Court to have the ruling overturned but his appeal was dismissed.

In 2022, the Court of Appeal ruled that an 'error of law' was made and granted Pearce leave to seek a judicial review against the Home Affairs Minister and the Governor of La Moye Prison.

It has now emerged that this ruling prompted the prison to revise its entire external escort policy in August 2023.

Pictured: The Jersey Independent Prison Monitoring Board's 2023 annual report was published this week.

The Jersey Independent Prison Monitoring Board's 2023 annual report was presented to Home Affairs Minister Mary Le Hegarat this week.

According to the report, the board received several applications relating to the appropriate use of restraint when prisoners have been escorted from the prison last year.

External escort was described as a "challenging area" where prison management need to balance different considerations.

This includes the security of the external location, the purpose of the visit, the prisoner's conviction, the prisoner's health, the risk of escape, the risk to the public, and the risk of meeting victims. 

The report revealed that the revision of HMP La Moye's external escort policy also looked at matters such as the individual risk assessment undertaken to assess the risk of each prisoner prior to the escort taking place, and the strength of the escort and restraint which is determined based on the risk assessment.

The Jersey Independent Prison Monitoring Board said it will continue to monitor external escorts throughout 2024.