Legal practitioners should notify their intention to visit by email to the security officer at [email protected] least 48 hours before their visit. All applications must be on company letterhead. Chapter 5 describes how inmates have access to legal information and support and participate in court proceedings. However, interviews conducted as part of this study suggest that a number of features of these systems may, in practice, impede inmates` access to legal aid and participation in court proceedings. Overall, our analysis showed that barriers arise from the following factors: Two characteristics define early pre-trial detention. The first is the fact that criminal cases are pending for all detainees awaiting trial, as well as often acute civil law issues related to their sudden detention, including family law issues, in particular the placement and visitation of children. Second, new pre-trial detainees are generally more limited in their powers of liberty than other prisoners and their access to legal aid is consequently restricted. The interaction of these two factors and their implications for access to justice are discussed below. As inmates move into major prisons or wings, some of the initial difficulties they faced in accessing legal aid improve. Once in the main population, detainees can be visited by their lawyers, access social and educational officials and use their telephone cards after the establishment. However, one practice that our respondents believe continues to impede inmates` access to justice is the frequent movement of inmates from one prison to another and from one wing to another within the prison system. However, interviews conducted as part of this study suggest that officers` ability to perform these tasks may be undermined by available resources that do not always meet high demand.
Our analysis identified a number of characteristics of staff roles that influenced inmates` use of legal aid, particularly with respect to the shortage of custodial and social staff. In this study, it was reported that detainees were regularly moved within the penal system: within centres, from prison to prison, and between prisons and police or court cells. It became clear that the constant movement of inmates inevitably affected the delivery of programs and services to inmates, whether it was legal aid, education or health services. In fact, Justice Health reported the following: In our discussion of the systemic environment, reference was inevitably made to the actors within these systems. In fact, we not only talked about lawyers as important providers of legal aid, but we also noted how a shortage of detention staff or social officials can also affect prisoners` access to justice. This brings us to another area of analysis and the next chapter of this report, namely the channels used or intermediaries that detainees rely on to obtain legal aid and participate in court proceedings. As discussed in Chapter 8, inmates` reliance on intermediaries arises from a number of factors, including the constraints described in this chapter, imposed by the systems in which inmates must live and function. As summarized above, formal legal information and counselling services are provided to detainees.
However, our analysis suggests that these limited resources are strained by high demands and undermined as a result. The following section explores how resource constraints may limit inmates` ability to access legal information, communicate with their lawyers, or participate in court proceedings: Staff shortages were an issue raised by inmates and advocacy groups when they identified barriers to prisoners` access to help with their legal problems. There appear to be two main effects of the shortage of DCS staff for inmates requiring assistance with legal issues: increased lockdowns and redeployment of staff. Finally, the transfer of prisoners to remote locations increases the cost of communicating with their lawyers. While remand prisoners may use private lawyers or lawyers at the expense of the DCS, sentenced detainees must pay for their own calls to private lawyers and many departments and departments: the above analysis draws attention to aspects of the wider systemic environment where there is a clear lack of resources. This gap therefore affects the ability of inmates to meet their legal needs. Our analysis also suggests that processes that take place in the systemic environment also influence the success or failure of prisoners` access to justice.