Lawyers who do vital prison work, often helping vulnerable inmates, will continue to desert the speciality if legal aid fees in England and Wales are not increased, their professional association has warned.
A survey by the Association of Prison Lawyers (APL) found that 74% of respondents did not anticipate being prison law legal aid lawyers in three years’ time, coming on the back of an 85% fall in providers since 2008.
The APL blamed a “toxic combination of emotionally exhausting, complex and poorly paid work”, with prison lawyers regularly going beyond the call of duty to help clients suffering serious mental health problems.
Prison lawyers provide representation and advice to people in prison, for example with transfers to other prisons, parole hearings and re-categorisation.
Prison law was excluded from the general 15% increase in criminal law legal aid rates in 2022, contrary to the advice of the independent legal aid review conducted by Lord Bellamy.
The APL says taking into account inflation, prison law legal aid rates have decreased by 35% since 2011, while the prison population has increased and the parole system has become more complex, contributing to a significant backlog in hearings.
Its chair, Rikki Garg, said: “Over the last 10 years prison law providers have been decimated. The number of suppliers has reduced from more than 900 firms doing this work in 2008 to 129 today.
“At the same time, hearings before the Parole Board are at an all-time high. The Parole Board has appointed specialist chairs to deal with distinct complex cases and increased its members.
“This rate of attrition cannot go on. New lawyers are not coming into an area of social justice when it is needed most.
“Unless something can be done to address this decline now there is no future in this area of practice. The result of this is that there will be far more unrepresented prisoners navigating a minefield of rules, regulations, guidance and statute which ultimately will result in a denial in access to justice with effective representation. The cost of which will far outweigh an increase in fees as recommended by the proposed Bellamy reforms.”
There were 98 responses to the survey, which the APL said was a reasonable number given that only 129 firms do prison law work. More than 90% estimated that they lose out financially in more than half of their cases, while 62% estimated they lose out in three-quarters of them.
The APL’s report says the parole system is “riddled with legal complexity and delay due to changes in law, policy and practice in recent years”, including the change in the test in open conditions and Dominic Raab’s short-lived ban on prison and probation staff making recommendations for release or transfer to open prison.
The report says: “The prison system is in crisis: it is chronically overcrowded and understaffed, and the prison population is set to rise exponentially in the next three years. Investment now is essential to ensure the prison and parole system will function fairly so that people can be released from prison safely at the earliest opportunity from costly incarceration.”
The Law Society president, Lubna Shuja, endorsed the call for the 15% uplift in fees to be applied immediately, citing an “urgent need to stop the exodus from the profession”.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “We’re putting the criminal legal aid sector on a sustainable footing, but it is only right we focus on those initial parts of the system where we can help divert more people away from crime and deliver swifter justice for victims.
“We closely monitor the number of legal aid providers to make sure prisoners have access to legal advice when they need it.”
