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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. Immigration detention in the prison estate

Organisations offering legal advice & practical help in prisons

Members of the AVID network who visit in prisons are:

  • Asylum Welcome supports people held in HMP Huntercombe. They refer and liaise with solicitors and other external organisation in areas of need.

  • LOSRAS run a visitor’s project to support people detained at HMP Lewes.

  • Detention Action have an advice line for people detained in prisons in addition to casework support and workshops in some specific prisons.

  • Manchester Immigration Detainee Support Team (MIDST) visit and support people detained in HMP Risley.

  • Midlands Migrant Support visit and support people detained in HMP Morton Hall.

  • Solidarity Detainee Support (SDS) visit and support people detained in various prisons in the UK.

Other useful organisations are:

  • Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) is a legal advice charity with a dedicated prisons legal team working with people detained in prisons to achieve their release.

  • Prisoners Advice Service (PAS) provides legal advice and information on prison law (not immigration law) to adults held in prisons, including people held under immigration powers. PAS advice line numbers are globally cleared in the prison estate, so do not need to be added to individual telephone PINs.

  • Hibiscus Initiatives provides welfare and advocacy support in prisons for marginalised women in prisons and IRCs.

  • Kent Refugee Help supports refugees and migrants held in London and Kent prisons. They help people access legal advice and representation to fight their case and stand with them throughout.

  • Clinks are a national network of organisations working with people and their families in prisons. Whilst they do not offer specific support to people held under immigration powers, you can use their directory to find which organisations visit in prisons.

  • Captain Support UK is a grassroots organisation which works in solidarity with all people criminalised for crossing borders or facilitating freedom of movement. The collective provides practical solidarity to people in prison and post-release as well as campaigning for systemic change against the criminalisation of immigration in the UK.

  • The Prison Reform Trust has a Prisoners Families Helpline who can give advice to families and advice on booking visits.

PreviousCriticisms on the use of Prison for Immigration Detention and Further ReadingNextIntroduction

Last updated 23 days ago

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