Prisons
The Office of the Ombudsmen employ seven staff members who deal with enquiries from prison inmates and assist the Ombudsmen to investigate complaints made by prison inmates.
Our prison investigating staff visit each prison on a regular basis and are available to speak with prison inmates about their concerns. Notices are placed in each prison unit advising when visits are to take place. If an inmate wishes to meet with one of our investigating staff, they should fill out a request form and give it to a unit staff member.
Inmates can also use a freephone telephone number (0800 662 837) if they wish to discuss their complaint with our prison investigating staff.
The Department of Corrections notifies the Ombudsmen of any "serious incidents" in prisons. "Serious incidents" mean "serious incidents of a nature potentially affecting the safe, fair and humane treatment of offenders". Examples of serious incidents include deaths in custody, incidents of self harm by inmates or alleged assaults on inmates by staff. An Ombudsman or prison investigating officer will often make a special visit to a prison where a serious incident has occurred. The Department of Corrections' investigation of a death in custody is always monitored by an Ombudsman and the Department's investigation of other serious incidents may also be monitored.
We also provide training sessions for new corrections officers on the role of the Ombudsmen.
Further information about making a complaint to an Ombudsman can be found in our pamphlet "Making complaints about the Prison Service - A guide for prison inmates wanting to make a complaint to the Ombudsmen".
Under section 160 of the Corrections Act 2004, the chief executive of the Department of Corrections and the Chief Ombudsman must enter into an agreement about access to complainants as defined (persons under control and supervision), access to records relevant to the resolution of complaints, and general assistance to be provided by the chief executive to the ombudsmen. Relevant complainants include prisoners held by the Department. The most recent agreement dated 6 May 2009, appears below.
Protocol 2009: PDF version (41KB); MS Word version (112KB)