The HM Prison and Probation Service has a large number of rules, regulations and guidelines by which prisons are run. People detained in the prison estate post-sentence are subject, alongside other prisoners, to the Prison Service Instructions (PSIs).
PSIs cover all aspects of prison management, regimes, and sentencing, including punishments and incentives, visiting, and communication. For example, new PSIs published during 2018 dealt with prison adjudications and records information management.
There are a small number of “foreign national” specific PSIs (see “Overview and Sources”). Be aware that these may not contain the most up to date immigration law or Home Office procedures, as these changes seem to take longer to manifest in revisions.
PSIs have an expiry date. In practice, revised versions are often not issued before the expiry date, or new legislation or reorganisation of prison and probation services dictates early revision. Until July 2009 Prison Service Orders were also issued, long-term mandatory instructions intended to last indefinitely and as such without an expiry date. Current PSOs remain in force until replaced by a PSI or cancelled.
“Foreign national offenders” (FNOs) who are subject to a licence once the custodial part of their sentence is finished should be treated in the same way as British citizens on licence, whether they are in immigration detention or on immigration bail and living in the community. Guidance for offender managers and supervisors, and probation officers, are relevant to people held in prison under immigration act powers. In practice, once someone is moved to an IRC, their overworked probation officer will assume they will be deported and are unlikely to proactively seek regular contact with them. If someone seeks release from detention during their licence period they will need the cooperation of their probation officer, and it may be helpful to consult HMPPS guidance. For example, Prison Service Instruction (12/2015) Licence conditions, licences, and licence supervision notices.