Prisons

What is our role?

Prisoners can make complaints to us. They can call us using a free call service available in all prisons. Calls to us are not monitored by prison staff.

In most cases, prisoners who wish to complain should follow the below steps:

1. Raise concerns with your Unit Manager.
2. If you are unhappy with their response, write to the General Manager of the prison
3. If you receive no response or are not satisfied with their response, call us.

If your wellbeing is at risk or you feel you can’t engage in the complaints process, you can call us for advice.

People can contact us on behalf of a prisoner for advice. But we will usually not be able to follow up on the complaint unless we can speak to the prisoner. This is because we need their permission to make enquiries with the prison.

What type of complaints can we take?

We can take complaints about:

• lost/damaged property
• visits
• access to medical treatment
• mail/phone calls
• buildings and facilities
• prisoners’ funds
• a restricted regime
• harassment
• assault by officers
• drug testing
• unfair disciplinary hearing processes
• General Manager's Disciplinary Hearings.

We also look at whether the prison has breached a prisoner's human rights or did not consider them properly.

Useful links

There are some matters that we don’t deal with. For these issues, you should instead contact the following organisations:

Court issues – Department of Justice, Courts and Tribunals Unit - Department of Justice and Community Safety

Medical issues – Health Complaints Commissioner

Parole issues – Adult Parole Board

Police conduct - Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC).