Partially upheld complaint against the Governor of HMP Lincoln
Complaint category:
Property
Month investigation completed:
May
Year investigation completed:
2025
A prisoner complained that the prison had failed to complete a cell clearance certificate and properly audit his property before transfer, and that much of what he had was now missing. The investigation established there was no cell clearance certificate. However the prison had sent on a large amount of bags of unspecified property, which was confirmed to have arrived, and because the prisoner was well above volumetric limits this was in his stored property.
Recommendations/outcome:
The lack of a properly completed cell clearance process placed the establishment in a very difficult position. However the property had arrived, and it would need to be relisted before a proper determination could be made of whether anything was actually missing.
Partially upheld complaint against the Governor of HMP Belmarsh
Complaint category:
Staff behaviour
Month investigation completed:
May
Year investigation completed:
2025
A prisoner complained about a female member of staff assaulting them and making racially motivated slurs. The prison were unable to supply any CCTV or BWVC footage which hampered the investigation. However we established that the incident involved the member of staff pushing a prisoner back into his cell.
Recommendations/outcome:
The lack of video evidence hampered the investigation and we brought this to the attention of the Governor. However we established the prison had looked into the matter and taken some remedial action with the member of staff. On balance, we considered that the context of the incident suggests the actions of the member of staff were reasonable.
Partially upheld complaint against the Governor of HMP Onley
Complaint category:
Categorisation, progression & release preparation
Month investigation completed:
May
Year investigation completed:
2025
A prisoner complained about the delay to his recategorisation. The investigation established that his review was overdue by nearly one month, this was because of pressures on OMU staff.
Recommendations/outcome:
There were no formal recommendations as during the investigation the review was completed, the prisoner moved to open conditions and the prison apologised for the delay.
Partially upheld complaint against the Governor of HMP Moorland
Complaint category:
Visits, calls & letters
Month investigation completed:
May
Year investigation completed:
2025
We investigated a complaint from a prisoner about a statutory letter being returned with no explanation by staff. We established that this was reasonably returned because local policy does not allow for additional enclosures due to weight and size limitations. This was not explained in the complaint response.
Recommendations/outcome:
While we made no formal recommendations; we brought this to the attention of the Governor as a case where the complaint response could have explained the actions of staff. We hold the view that this complaint should have been resolved by the prison without reference to IPCI.
Upheld complaint against the Governor of HMP Stocken
Complaint category:
Accommodation, food, education & other facilities
Month investigation completed:
April
Year investigation completed:
2025
A prisoner complained that he was left without functioning sanitation for 2 weeks. Although the IPCI investigation could not establish the exact length of time, it was clear that the prison had taken 7 days to log the fault to be fixed, although it was then fixed promptly.
Recommendations/outcome:
The prison apologised and the issue was resolved.
Partially upheld complaint against the Governor of HMP Lincoln
Complaint category:
Property
Month investigation completed:
April
Year investigation completed:
2025
A prisoner complained that a large amount of property went missing when he transferred from HMP Lincoln to HMP Stocken. The IPCI investigation established that his stored property had not transferred with him, and that several items were recorded as failing to arrive at Stocken. Lincoln was unable to evidence what property had subsequently been sent on.
Recommendations/outcome:
We upheld the complaint and asked HMP Lincoln to pay compensation. We also recommended his property cards be updated to remove items which are clearly not his.
Partially upheld complaint against the Governor of HMP Frankland
Complaint category:
Property
Month investigation completed:
April
Year investigation completed:
2025
A prisoner complained that staff had damaged his property, and the prison had refused to provide him CCTV footage that might reveal who damaged it. The IPCI investigation found no evidence to suggest that staff had damaged his property but partially upheld the complaint on the basis that staff had wrongly told him he had no right to request the footage and had not treated his request as a SAR or FOI request.
Recommendations/outcome:
The CCTV footage was no longer available, but we wrote to the Governor to remind them of the responsibilities of staff to respond to SAR and FOI requests.
Partially upheld complaint against the Governor of HMP Gartree
Complaint category:
Adjudication & IEP
Month investigation completed:
April
Year investigation completed:
2025
A prisoner complained that he had been downgraded after being placed on report, and that he should not have been subjected to double punishment. The IPCI investigation found that it was reasonable that he was downgraded following being placed on report. However, we partially upheld this case on the basis that the prison did not review his IEP level following the adjudication being quashed, as required by policy.
Recommendations/outcome:
The prisoner’s IEP level had been reviewed by the time we completed our investigation, and he had been reinstated to his previous IEP level. We wrote to both the Governor and the PGD to remind them of the need to review IEP levels in such circumstances.
Upheld complaint against the Director of HMP Parc
Complaint category:
Accommodation, food, education & other facilities
Month investigation completed:
April
Year investigation completed:
2025
A prisoner complained that he was not being provided with a gluten free diet by staff at HMP Parc. The IPCI investigation found that the prisoner’s records evidenced that there were occasions when his dietary needs had not been met.
Recommendations/outcome:
During the course of the investigation, the prisoner changed to an alternative diet. As a result, it was not necessary to make any recommendations on this occasion.
Upheld complaint against the Governor of HMP High Down
Complaint category:
Property
Month investigation completed:
April
Year investigation completed:
2025
A prisoner complained about the low level of compensation offered to him by staff at HMP High Down after they lost his property. The IPCI investigation found that the prison was using maximums within the facilities list to calculate compensation which is against national policy.
Recommendations/outcome:
We asked that the prison pay a significantly higher amount of compensation than was originally proposed, and that they review local practices in relation to facilities lists and property disclaimers to bring them in line with policy.
