Scottish Human Rights Law Group

A challenge under Article 8 of the ECHR was made to the telephone systems in Scottish prisons.  This system provides “that any call made from a prisoner telephone be preceded by a recorded message which advises the recipient that the call is coming from a Scottish prison”

Lord Matthews in the Outer House held that the system was proportionate.

His Lordship considered that it was necessary for prison authorities be able to monitor and record telephone calls for the purposes of the prevention of disorder and crime but in particular for the discipline and control of persons required to be detained therein in terms of section 39(1) of the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1989.    It was noted there were around two million calls from Scottish Prisons each year, and although many of these calls would be to the same recipient, Lord Matthews considered it legitimate to infer that there will be tens if not hundreds of thousands of different recipients of calls each year.  There would, therefore, be a significant number recipients whose article 8 rights would be infringed were they not made aware of the fact of the surveillance.   His Lordship also considered that the message was necessary due to the evidence that those suffering from domestic violence found the message gave them a useful indication of whom a call was from and allowed them time before the call to decide whether to hang up or not without invoking the anger of the prisoner.  Furthermore, the Scottish Prison Service had a legitimate aim in operating a blanket policy in order to prevent the  exploitation and bullying of prisoners who would be subject to a different set of rules regarding phone usage if there  were such rules.

The court held that if there is interference with the prisoner’s Article 8 rights, this is marginal at best.  It was held that arrangements can be made to make calls at specific times, and the court stated that the prisoner could  correspond in writing if he did not wish people to know he was in prison.

The full report can be read here.