Decision report 201100974

Summary
Mr C, who is a prisoner, complained because those in his residential hall at the prison were not receiving their mail until after 18:30 each day. Mr C said other residential halls were receiving mail before this time and it was unfair because mail was important to prisoners. Our investigation found that there is no obligation for prisoners to receive their mail before a certain time in the day. Instead, the prison must ensure prisoners receive their mail on the day it is received into the establishment. In addition to this, following an audit, the prison had taken steps to reinforce the security of the mail process, and this impacted on when prisoners would receive mail. The purpose of this change was to assist in the good order and security of the prison. Although we recognise how important receiving mail is for prisoners, we agreed that this was reasonable in the circumstances.