Abstract
With Vinter v United Kingdom the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights recently re-defined the standard governing whole-life imprisonment in the Member States of the Council of Europe. The obligation found in Vinter to review life sentences, even those without parole, points to a gradual shift from retribution to rehabilitation, which must affect other aspects of the life of individuals serving whole-life tariffs. We argue that the principle irradiating from Vinter should reach even further and redefine prisoners’ rights under art.8. Our modest claim is that the notion of the right to hope implies all prisoners’ right to benefit from rehabilitation programmes, and in particular to enjoy long-term family visits, including unsupervised visits by family members of the inmate and conjugal visits.