Prison Security Act 1992
01 January 1991
Prison Security Act 1992
actdoc June=1992
An Act to make provision for an offence of prison mutiny and for a new
offence and new penalties in connection with escapes from
prison. [16th March 1992]
BE IT ENACTED by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice
and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this
present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as
follows:-
1.-(1) Any prisoner who takes part in a prison mutiny shall be guilty
of an offence and liable, on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for
a term not exceeding ten years or to a fine or to both.
(2) For the purposes of this section there is a prison mutiny where
two or more prisoners, while on the premises of any prison, engage in
conduct which is intended to further a common purpose of overthrowing
lawful authority in that prison.
(3) For the purposes of this section the intentions and common
purpose of prisoners may be inferred from the form and circumstances of
their conduct and it shall be immaterial that conduct falling within
subsection (2) above takes a different form in the case of different
prisoners.
(4) Where there is a prison mutiny, a prisoner who has or is given
a reasonable opportunity of submitting to lawful authority and falls,
without reasonable excuse, to do so shall be regarded for the purposes of
this section as taking part in the mutiny.
(5) Proceedings for an offence under this section shall not be
brought except by or with the consent of the Director of Public
Prosecutions.
(6) In this section-
"conduct" includes acts and omissions;
"prison" means any prison, young offender institution or remand centre
which is under the general superintendence of, or is provided by, the
Secretary of State under the Prison Act 1952, including a contracted
out prison within the meaning of Part IV of the Criminal Justice Act
1991;
"prisoner" means any person for the time being in a prison as a result
of any requirement imposed by a court or otherwise that he be detained
in legal custody.
2.-(1) In section 39 of the Prison Act 1952 (offence of assisting
prisoner to escape)-
(a) after the word "prisoner", in the third place where it occurs.
there shall be inserted the words "sends any thing (by post or
otherwise) into a prison or to a prisoner"; and
(b) for the words "five years" there shall be substituted the
words "ten years".
(2) In section 22(2)(b) of the Criminal Justice Act 1961 (penalty on
indictment for harbouring or assisting a person unlawfully at large), for
the words "two years" there shall be substituted the words "ten years".
(3) In that Act of 1961, section 22(1) and the entry in Schedule 4
relating to section 39 of the Prison Act 1952 (which increased from two
years to five years the maximum term of imprisonment for an offence under
section 39) are hereby repealed.
(4) This section shall not affect the penalty for any offence
committed before the commencement of this Act.
3.-(1) This Act may be cited as the Prison Security Act 1992.
(2) This Act shall come into force at the end of the period of two
months beginning with the day on which it is passed.
(3) This Act extends to England and Wales only.