Issues around European prisoners returning from prison abroad

European citizens returning to their home countries after release from prison abroad face many difficulties in terms of adjusting to life outside prison and re-adjusting to life in their home country. Their return also poses difficulties for their families who may find that expectations for the homecoming differ greatly from the reality. Finally, these returning prisoners may pose difficulties for their home society who may not be equipped to offer them support and supervision. The experiences of returning prisoners

Their families
Lack of support
Lack of supervision


The experiences of returning prisoners
Once a foreign prisoner finishes their sentence, there may be uncertainty as to how they will get back to their home country. In the Philippines, for example, the immigration authorities will not release the prisoner until they can obtain a flight home.

In other countries, foreign prisoners find themselves ordered to pack and leave the prison with minimal notice and required to use their own resources to get home. Many returning prisoners, however, are deported to their home country following their release from prison. For some of these "deportees", this means leaving a country where they have spent many years, leaving behind their families and homes and returning to the country of their nationality. Many have been away from that country for so long, often since childhood, that they are effectively coming to an alien country where they have no friends or family, no knowledge of how to find work or accommodation and, sometimes, no knowledge even of the language. For those who have been forced to leave behind their family, the distress can be immense. They have often only been given a few days' notice of their deportation and have had no time to prepare for their release in any meaningful way.

In many prisons, preparation for resettlement applies only to that country and foreign nationals may find themselves totally unprepared for their return to their own country. Many will have lost contact with their family and friends during their imprisonment abroad and there is little by way of international co-operation to facilitate the ex-prisoner's return.

Most returning prisoners are disoriented following their release and struggle to adapt to life outside prison. Some also return with mental or physical health problems or are traumatised from their experiences in prison.

Their families
The difficulties encountered by prisoners returning from abroad often mean that expectations of a simple return to family life are unfulfilled. The psychological effects of imprisonment are often poorly understood by families and prisoners may in turn have little understanding of what their family has been through during their absence. With the added stress of accumulated debts, stigma and lack of opportunities for employment or training, many family relationships simply do not survive the return of the family member from prison overseas.

Lack of support
In the majority of European countries, there is little or no statutory support for prisoners returning from abroad. This means that these ex-prisoners find themselves excluded from any provision for accommodation, training or employment for ex-offenders. The process of rehabilitation is therefore substantially more difficult for European citizens returning from prison overseas and, as a consequence, even those ex-prisoners who want to find a settled way of life may drift back into a life of crime because they feel they have no other option.

Lack of supervision
A number of returning prisoners also pose serious questions of risk to the public. Many ex-prisoners have multiple needs such as health and addiction problems; some are potentially dangerous and pose a risk to public safety. These prisoners have committed serious offences for which they have spent many years in prison (rape, murder etc) or a series of offences that makes it likely they will go on offending.

Under normal circumstances, a person released from prison is subject to national procedures and regulations concerning the supervision of ex-offenders. However, those arriving back from abroad, are not subject to any statutory supervision and agencies such as the local Policy or Probation Services have no knowledge of their existence. This situation creates a number of problems:
 

  • There is no information from the prison or other agencies who have worked with the person. This means there is no available history of the person i.e. no record of their previous convictions, no professional assessments and no record of their response to treatment or attitude to their offence. Without this information it is impossible to assess the risk they present and to establish if the person may re-offend.
  • There is no access for them to specialist services for ex-offenders e.g. hostels. For example, in the UK, referrals to hostels for sex offenders have to come from the probation service.
  • If the person wants to continue counselling or treatment, there is little help available to them.

A number of CEP Expert Group on Foreign Nationals' agencies work with returning prisoners and their families. They are increasingly concerned by the isolation faced by these groups and the potential risks that arise as a result. For more information, please contact cepexperts@prisonersabroad.org.uk.