Decision Report 201402386

Summary

Mr C applied to transfer to an English prison to be near his family for visiting purposes. Although his application was granted, this took some time, and Mr C thought it was unlikely that he would be transferred before his liberation date later that year. As a result, Mr C applied for progression to the open estate (an area with less secure prison conditions) for the remainder of his term instead.

However, his application to be moved to the open estate was declined as he had not been given an assessment to determine what programmes he would benefit from, or completed any programmes. Although Mr C had indicated he was interested in completing any programmes which were considered useful for him, his assessment had been put on hold due to his request for transfer to an English prison.

Mr C complained to our office about the Scottish Prison Service (SPS)'s handling of his applications for transfer to an English prison and for the open estate, as well as their handling of his requests to be assessed for programmes. However, Mr C was freed from prison whilst we were investigating his complaint and did not provide us with a contact address. Although the SPS provided a contact address, Mr C did not respond to our attempts to contact him at this address, and we had no option but to close our file on his case.