Decision report 201104451

Summary
Mr C, who is a prisoner, complained because he was considered to meet the Scottish Prison Service (SPS)’s criteria for being moved from his existing prison to a new prison. This was because the postcode of the home address at which he was registered was one of those which determined a move to the new prison. Mr C did not wish to move because his partner had moved to be closer to his existing prison and because they wished to start a new life in that area on his release. He, therefore, wanted his registered home address to be changed to his partner's new address in the local area. He considered that would mean he would probably not meet the criteria for moving to the new prison.

However, we found that in the case of long-term prisoners such as Mr C, it is not simply a matter of wishing to change the registered home address. Social work staff in the registered home area and the proposed new area need to discuss and agree such a move first. Examples of what they take into account in such cases are whether the proposed new address is suitable and whether social work staff in the proposed area would accept responsibility for supervision etc on the prisoner's release.

We did not uphold Mr C's complaint. The SPS had correctly explained the situation about the change of address. We advised him that he would need to go through the above process to see whether it could be changed, although, even if it was changed, there was no guarantee that he would be able to stay at his existing prison. In the meantime, the SPS would be acting within their prisoner allocation policy in relation to the new prison by moving him there.