Prison Complaints Procedure

Prison Complaints – To get anything done or any request in prison, you need to put in an ‘app’. This is the answer to any question you ask a prison officer. Unlike your life before prison where you could get instant answers or follow things up, in prison life works slowly.

Don’t expect any quick responses to any apps that you put in, fastest is probably a week to get a response. You could use a ‘General Application’ for any request ranging from Lost property to applying for jobs. You will, throughout your journey fill out many general apps with many going unanswered.

If you are lucky enough to have the electronic kiosk touch screens where you can fill in general apps, this should speed up the process and stop the, many lost applications that you submit. It can get extremely frustrating and annoying.

There are so many applications for a variety of things, a form to add visitors, a form to add telephone numbers to your system, a form for health care, a form for emergency phone credit and a form to report racism. The forms should be accessible at the end of the wings which you can get when unlocked. If forms are missing, don’t hesitate to go into the officer’s office and request they print the form out.

Prison Complaints Procedure

If you are unhappy with a response or feel that a complaint needs to be made, there are other forms called COMP1. This needs to be filled in first and you should get a response from someone in a senior position. If you are still unhappy with this response and feel it needs to be taken further use a COMP2, it goes to the wing governor to respond to.

There are also other prison bodies you can write to if you feel your complaint needs to be looked into or if you feel the prison isn’t taking you seriously.

IMB – (Independent Monitoring Board) Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) members are local people appointed by ministers to visit the prison or immigration removal centre or short-term holding facility in their area on a regular basis. They check that proper standards of care and decency are maintained and that people are treated fairly and humanely. https://www.imb.org.uk/

PPO – (The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman) investigates complaints from prisoners, those on probation and those held in immigration removal centres. It also investigates all deaths that occur among prisoners, immigration detainees and the residents of probation hostels (Approved Premises). https://www.imb.org.uk/