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Making
A Complaint To The Ombudsman
The Prisoner Ombudsman, Brian Coulter, is independent
of the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS). His job
is to consider complaints made by prisoners who remain
unhappy with the answer they have received from the Prison
Service. He can help all prisoners (including former prisoners,
in certain circumstances) sentenced and remand, men and
women, adults and young prisoners can complain to him.
Complaints must first have been aired through the internal
NIPS complaints system. The Prisoner Ombudsman will take
a fresh look at the complaint and decide whether it has
been dealt with fairly. If the Ombudsman upholds the complaint,
he will make recommendations to NIPS to put things right.
How The Prisoner Ombudsman System Works
Whatever your complaint is about, you should use the
Prison Service complaints system first to try and deal
with the problem.
• Talk to staff on the wing and see if they can
sort the matter informally;
•
If
they can’t help, make a formal complaint through
the NIPS internal complaints procedure;
•
If
you are not satisfied with the answer, you can appeal.
If after exhausting the internal prison complaints’
system you are still not happy and think that you have
been dealt with unfairly, you can complain to the Prisoner
Ombudsman. You must do this within 30 days of getting
a final reply from the Prison Service.
We will not normally investigate a complaint before
you have had a final reply to your appeal, but if you
have not had a response from the Prison Service within
6 weeks, you can complain to us.
To make an application to the Prisoner Ombudsman, you
should write to us or fill out an application form.
When you send your application to us, we will decide
whether we are able to investigate your complaint. We
will tell you if you need to pursue your complaint further
with the Prison Service. If appropriate we will begin
an investigation.
A Prisoner Ombudsman investigator will look carefully
at all the facts and will report to the Ombudsman.
They may:
•
try
to seek a local resolution to your complaint; or
•
write
a letter or short report; or
•
draft
a longer report that will be sent to the Prison Service
for comment.
Once we have their comments to the longer report we
will send the draft to you. You will be given the opportunity
to comment on the report at this stage. Once everyone
has seen the report, the Ombudsman will formally approve
it and make recommendations if appropriate. Where the
Ombudsman makes recommendations, he will also then follow
up and check that these have been acted on.
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