It is the general practice in each closed prison to handcuff male prisoners when being taken out of the prison on escort to court. In doing this the primary consideration is the legal duty placed on the prison governor to ensure that the person concerned is brought safely and securely before the court. The use of handcuffs and short chains is necessary as borne out over many years by the many attempts by prisoners on escorts to escape from custody and to assault staff. It is standard operating procedure in penal systems throughout the world to take such steps as are necessary to prevent persons escaping from custody while on escort outside of the prison.
While I believe that it is most undesirable that prisoners should be seen in handcuffs by members of the public, including potential jurors and members of the media, many court locations do not allow for the delivery of a prisoner directly to their destination without coming into public view. I do, however, strongly reject the implication that prisoners are ever "paraded" in public. On the contrary, the Prison Service makes every effort to protect the privacy of prisoners by a number of measures. These measures include arriving early for court hearings, conducting escorts within the courts after the jury rooms have been cleared and attempting to arrive in transport as close as possible to the courts in order to reduce the length of time that a prisoner has to spend in the public eye.