Chris Baker talks to prison law specialists about how life is harder for inmates and their solicitors

Lawyers working within the prison system see two clear areas where problems arise and more reform is probably needed - sentencing and the conditions in which prisoners have to live.

Last year, there were changes to the tests under which prisoners serving a life sentence - or 'lifers' - were released on licence.

Previously, Parole Board hearings were by and large paper-based affairs, but now lifers can have oral hearings with representation present.

Nick Wells, an assistant at Manchester firm Tuckers, does most of his work with lifers.

He contends that the hearings, combined with an increase of people being sent to jail, have left the Parole Board overstretched.

This, coupled with changes in the last Criminal Justice Act that allow lifers more freedom to be released on licence, has exacerbated problems the moves were designed to try and solve.

And a lack of resources within the prison system has made it even more difficult for prisoners to even get a fair hearing from the board.

'The Parole Board often wants to see that the prisoner has been on courses directed at tackling offending behaviour, but the Prison Service is finding it difficult to send the prisoner on these courses and give people the opportunity to address their offending behaviour,' Mr Wells says.

'You are getting people who are serving a couple of years over their tariff in prison simply to allow them to do these courses.'

Mr Wells also complains that prisons are comprised largely of 'Victorian buildings riddled with cockroaches and rodents'.

He maintains that these conditions are a major factor in the high level of prison suicides.

'Part of it is also to do with the volume of people who are in there who are not being given the attention they need upon reception,' he says.

'A couple of years ago, the trend [in suicides] was downwards but the Prison Service has since been overwhelmed.'

Another issue for solicitors is freedom of speech.

Mr Wells acts for serial killer Dennis Nilsen, who recently was stopped from writing his autobiography by the courts.

Tuckers will be seeking leave to appeal this week.

Restrictions on revelations that are a threat to security or the public are all well and good, but in the days of the Human Rights Act, restrictions against a book that will not threaten these areas are wrong, Mr Wells says.

There was also the case recently of Saira Ali Ahmed, wife of infamous prisoner Charles Bronson, who failed in her legal action to be allowed to publish photos of their 2001 wedding at Woodhill Maximum Security Prison in a book.

The Prison Service prohibited the couple from using their own photographer, and photographs were taken by a prison officer.

The service, as the copyright owner, then refused to allow Ms Ahmed to use the photos, on the grounds that their publication would encourage the cult of notoriety surrounding Bronson.

This was upheld by the High Court in a judicial review hearing.

Ms Ahmed, advised by Luton firm Pictons, said her book was aimed at helping women who have been brought to the UK for arranged marriages and then suffered abuse at the hands of their husbands.

She said she wanted to use the photographs to show the happy conclusion to her own story.

Daniel Machover, a partner at London firm Hickman & Rose, is perhaps best known for his work on behalf of prisoners at Wormwood Scrubs, and late last year brought successful civil cases on behalf of prisoners who were abused by members of staff.

The judiciary and Prison Service need to be more aware of the vulnerable young people on remand or short sentences who kill themselves, Mr Machover says.

Mistreatment is a serious issue, he adds, pointing to his work at the Scrubs.

'We shall be calling for a public inquiry into what happened at Wormwood Scrubs,' Mr Machover adds.

'If the home secretary refuses to hold one, then a group of my clients will challenge that decision.'

Independent monitoring boards must do much more to punish prison officers quickly and to be more rigorous in their investigations, he says.

'The police need to take more interest [in cases of abuse by prison officers] and the Prison Service needs to show interest in calling the police in early and making sure they do a decent job,' he says.

Law Society council member Malcolm Fowler, a partner at Jonas Roy Bloom in Birmingham, and a passionate believer in prison reform, says the problem is political.

Successive home secretaries starting with now Tory leader Michael Howard have tried to outdo each other in their zeal, and the system cannot cope, he says.

This is in part because of a need to appear tough on crime to appease the public.

But prison 'sets people up to fail', he maintains.

There are too few rehabilitative measures, random drug testing means inmates will use heroin rather than softer drugs - as it less easy to detect - and prison wages are higher for manual labour than for education courses, he adds.

'I have third-generation clients and they have children,' Mr Fowler says.

'It makes an argument that the system does not work and we have to break into the pattern at some point.'

And part of that would mean Whitehall and the public being more realistic in the treatment of offenders.

'We are now a very vengeful society,' Mr Fowler says.

'We have got to get the government to stop sticking on or giving in to that vengeful society.

When you send someone to prison you can more or less write the script from there on - unless something rehabilitative happens.'

Chris Baker is a freelance journalist