Decision report 201203730

Summary

Mr C, who is a prisoner, complained that the prison inappropriately changed his management plan. This is a plan that is put in place by the prison which outlines the agreed steps a prisoner will be required to take to demonstrate that he can manage his risk appropriately prior to him being released. In Mr C's case, the prison decided that he should spend nine months on a work placement in the community before he would be considered for progression to less secure prison conditions. It was previously proposed that he should only spend six months on a work placement and Mr C said this was agreed by the parole board.

Our investigation confirmed that the prison had taken account of the length of time Mr C had spent in closed prison conditions, and it was felt that he should be required to undertake his work placement over a longer period to allow him to demonstrate that he could manage his risk appropriately. We were satisfied that the prison had taken a decision they were entitled to take and because of that, we did not uphold Mr C's complaint. We also noted that the fact that the parole board had agreed a management plan did not mean that the plan could not be changed.