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AVID Visitor Handbook
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  • Welcome
  • Introduction
    • About AVID
    • About this Handbook
  • Getting started as a visitor
    • Introduction
      • Why Visit People in Detention
      • The Role of a Visitor
      • Joining a visitor group
    • Practicalities of visiting
      • Models of visiting
      • Booking a social visit
      • What to expect on arrival
      • What to expect in a visiting room
      • What to expect in prisons
      • How do people in detention find out about visitors?
    • Visiting Skills
      • Being worthy of trust
      • Empathetic listening
      • Demonstrating independence
      • Boundaries and safeguarding
    • What issues might someone raise and what can I do?
    • Step-by-step: Before, during and after a visit
    • Find a visitor group
    • Useful organisations
    • Visitor wellbeing
  • Who can be detained
    • Introduction
    • Who, Why, When
    • Decisions to Detain
    • Lawfulness of Detention
    • People considered unsuitable for detention
    • Demographics
  • Immigration Detention in the UK: Essential Legislation, Policy and Guidance
    • Introduction
    • Essential Immigration and Asylum Law for Visitors
      • UK legislation on asylum and detention
      • International Framework
      • Claiming asylum in the UK
      • Post Brexit Changes
    • Detention Policy and Guidance
      • Overview and Sources
      • Detention General Instructions
      • Detention Centre and Short-Term Holding Facility Rules
      • Detention Operating Standards
      • Detention Service Orders
      • Prison Service Instructions & Probation Orders
      • Home Office Policy and Guidance
      • What can visitors do?
  • Immigration detention in the prison estate
    • Introduction
    • Legal Framework
    • Why are people detained in the prison estate?
    • History of the use of prisons to detain people held under immigration powers
    • Additional layers of disadvantage
    • Criticisms on the use of Prison for Immigration Detention and Further Reading
    • Organisations offering legal advice & practical help in prisons
  • Legal Advice and Representation
    • Introduction
    • Legal Advice and Representation
      • Why do people in detention need legal advice?
      • What is legal aid and what does it cover?
      • Who can give immigration legal advice?
      • The Legal Aid Agency Detention Duty Advice Scheme in IRCs
      • How do I know if a solicitor is doing a good job?
    • What can visitors do?
      • Finding a legal advisor
      • Finding a legal advisor for a person detained under immigration powers in the prison estate
      • Notify a legal representative that their detained client has been moved to another IRC
      • Help a person in detention to understand what they can reasonably expect of their lawyer
      • Give Information
      • Visitors and legal advisors: constructive relationships
      • Help if there are problems with the current legal representative
      • Acting as a McKenzie Friend
  • Safeguards
    • Introduction
    • Harms of detention: what safeguarding concerns do visitors come across in detention?
      • Deteriorating mental health
      • Worsening of pre-existing health needs
      • Trauma and mental health conditions that are common in detention
      • Failures in continuity of care
      • Mistreatment and abuse
      • Disbelief
      • Suicidal thoughts and self-harm
      • Survivors of torture, human trafficking and modern slavery
      • People who lack decision-making capacity
      • Age disputed children
    • Policy and practice
      • Adults at Risk Policy (AAR)
        • Background to the Adults at Risk Policy
        • Ongoing Criticisms and Developments
        • Present position of the AAR and oversight
      • Healthcare screening, assessment and monitoring
        • Healthcare safeguarding reports: Rule 35 and Rule 32
        • Challenges and concerns about reporting under Rules 32/35
        • Key Points for Visitors
      • The ACDT System
        • Challenges and concerns
      • Use of Segregation
        • Challenges and concerns
      • National Referral Mechanism
        • Challenges and concerns
      • The Mental Capacity Act 2005
        • Challenges and concerns
      • Age Assessments
        • Challenges and concerns
    • A series of case studies
      • Dawit
      • Ali
      • Drita
      • Bao
      • Gabriel
    • What can visitors do
      • Safeguarding Principles
      • Emotional support through empathetic and active listening
      • Worried about someone’s deteriorating mental and physical health
      • Access to Medical Information
      • Support after release
    • Looking after your own wellbeing
    • Useful Organisations
  • Getting out of detention
    • Introduction
    • Immigration Bail Overview
      • Secretary of State Bail
      • Immigration Tribunal Bail
    • Bail addresses and Home Office accommodation
    • Offering financial condition supporters/sureties
    • Refusal of bail and further bail applications
    • Bail with or without a legal advisor
    • Bail for people detained in the prison estate
    • Mandatory electronic monitoring for those facing deportation
    • Bail and removal directions
    • What can visitors do?
    • Life after release
  • Removal, Return, and Deportation
    • Introduction
    • Definitions
    • Being ‘liable to removal’ or ‘liable to deportation’ and Notices
    • Third Country Removals
    • Deportation
    • Getting on the plane
    • Assisted Voluntary Returns Schemes
    • Family Returns Process
    • Consequences of being removed or deported for return to the UK
    • What can visitors do?
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  1. Getting started as a visitor

Find a visitor group

PreviousStep-by-step: Before, during and after a visitNextUseful organisations

Last updated 4 months ago

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You may want to refer someone to another visitor group if the person you are visiting:

  • Is being moved to another centre

  • Needs a particular kind of support your group cannot offer

Details of visitor groups to every detention centre and some prisons are available on the AVID website. .

Visitor groups can access the most up-to-date information on what other visitor groups can offer through the AVID google drive. To access the google drive contact your group co-ordinator or contact AVID directly at

Use the map function to find a visitor group at the relevant centre
enquiries@aviddetention.org.uk.
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