Summary
Mr C complained that because the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) failed to appropriately process his property, he lost two items. Mr C said that they failed to record or itemise his belongings correctly, failed to place them in sealed bags and mixed them up with those of another prisoner.
The evidence showed that at several stages the SPS failed to follow their procedures and appropriately process Mr C's property, and it was clear from their own investigation of his complaint that they had found failings. However, the SPS did not appear to have taken any action to remedy these, despite repeated prompts from us to do so, and we criticised them for this.
Recommendations
We recommended that the SPS: feed back our decision on Mr C's complaint to the staff involved to ensure that such failings do not occur in future; reconsider Mr C's claim for lost property, taking into account the failings identified in this case; and provide Mr C with a written apology for the failings identified.
Related reading
View Decision Report 201300474 as a PDF (12.75 KB) Updated: March 13, 2018