Source · SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman)

Scottish Prison Service

SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman) Partly Upheld Reference 201300685 Sector Prisons Category policy/administration Decided 01 November 2013

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Full decision

Summary

Mr C, who is a prisoner, had special security measures imposed upon him by the prison. These were put in place to ensure that Mr C could be managed safely. Mr C complained to us because the paperwork completed by the prison in deciding to put those measures in place was missing. Mr C also complained because the measures were applied even when the relevant paperwork was missing.

The prison agreed that the paperwork was missing and because of that, we upheld the complaint. However, we did not make any recommendations because once the prison became aware that the paperwork was missing, they took steps to replace it by completing it again. We did not uphold Mr C's complaint that the measures were applied although the relevant paperwork was not available. The prison had the authority to impose the measures, and the evidence they provided confirmed they had concerns about Mr C's safety.

Mr C also complained because the governor told him that she would respond to his complaint once her investigation was complete. The prison could not provide any evidence to show us that the governor had responded, and because of that, we upheld that complaint.

Recommendations

We recommended that Scottish Prison Service: apologise to Mr C for failing to respond appropriately to his complaint.

Related reading

View Decision Report 201300685 as a PDF (12.1 KB) Updated: March 13, 2018

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