Decision report 201201865

Summary

Mr C, who is a prisoner, complained that he was unable to purchase books from a supplier of his choice. We explained to Mr C that the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) were entitled to make decisions such as this, and that our only role was to consider if there had been maladministration in the way they had taken this decision.

Our investigation found that the decision had been taken for security reasons, and applied to all prisoners in the prison. We were, therefore, satisfied that the decision was taken after careful consideration of relevant factors, namely the safety and security of the prison. We also noted that, since Mr C's complaint, SPS had introduced a tighter policy across all prisons for prisoners' receipt of books. This meant that, regardless of the situation at the time of his complaint, he would no longer have been able to obtain the books he wanted.