The system in England and Wales for the protection of prisoners' rights relies on three institutions: a prisons inspectorate with right of entry to all prisons at any time, a prisons and probation ombudsman, and local independent monitoring boards. This contribution focuses on the Prisons Inspectorate and discusses its methodology and criteria for inspection, based on international human rights standards; the effectiveness of the inspectorate; its independence and relationships with other monitoring bodies, the government and the prison service; the application of the methodology to other countries outside the UK; and future developments and threats.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.