ABSTRACT
In the European Union (EU), the legal status of prisoners are still nearly exclusively governed by the law of the member states. However, as the reach of the EU's competences has expanded over the years, so have the situations in which individual rights can be affected by the Union, or by member states acting on the basis of EU law. This holds true for criminal law, especially where the body of EU law developed in substantive criminal law, judicial and police cooperation have together enhanced the effectiveness of law enforcement. The latter result, it goes without saying, has come with strings attached. A streamlined system of, e.g., evidence gathering or surrender of suspects and convicted people across the EU inevitably has an impact on the person subject to those measures. That is even more so the case as many of the measures of cooperation between member states involve deprivation of liberty. There is no consolidated instrument that regulates the rights of prisoners. There are, nonetheless, different scenarios where EU law plays a relevant role for the treatment of persons that might be, are or were deprived of liberty. On that basis, the present chapter provides a critical overview of the EU's approach to deprivation of liberty in the context of criminal proceedings, by focusing on a series of core rights ensuing from – or impinged upon – the status of prisoners.
