Solicitors call for prisoners to have access to law books

Criminal law practitioners this week joined prisoners' rights campaigners in calls for those held in custody on remand to have better access to legal information to prepare for trial.

Criminal Law Solicitors Association director Rodney Warren spoke out after research by the Prison Reform Trust showed that 48% of prisons do not hold the reference books they are required to stock by law, while in three-quarters of prisons, staff shortages mean inmates are denied access to legal materials.

Mr Warren echoed the trust's call for a review.

'People are being denied information they are entitled to at a time when they are possibly more worried about their position than at any other point in their lives,' he complained.

Paula Rohan