Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner - March 2015
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There is consistency in the approach to interception work in prisons;
The proper authorisations and risk assessments are in place to support the
monitoring of prisoners telephone calls and mail;
Appropriate measures are being afforded to the retention, storage and
destruction of intercept product.
11.16 Number of inspections. In 2014 our office conducted 100 inspections at 96
different prisons55 which is over two thirds of the establishments.
11.17 The length of each inspection depends on the category and capacity of the prison
being inspected. The majority of the inspections take place over 1 day. Inspections of the
larger capacity or high security (Category A) prisons may take place over 2 days.
11.18 Examination of systems and procedures for the interception of prisoners’
communications. Our prison inspections are structured to ensure that key areas derived
from Prison Rules, the relevant PSIs and policies are scrutinised. A typical inspection
includes examination of the following areas:
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Induction and awareness of prisoners;
Procedures for the monitoring prisoners’ telephone calls and mail (including
risk assessments, authorisations, monitoring logs);
Arrangements for the handling of legally privileged and other confidential
telephone calls and mail;
Procedures for the storage, retention and destruction of intercept material.
11.19 Inspection Reports. The reports contain a review of compliance against a strict
set of baselines that derive from Prison Rules and other policy documents. They contain
formal recommendations with a requirement for the prison to report back within two
months to say that the recommendations have been implemented, or what progress has
been made.
Inspection Findings and Recommendations
11.20 The total number of recommendations made during our 100 prison inspections in
2014 was 492, an average of 5 recommendations for each prison. The marginal downward
trend in the average number of recommendations emanating from each inspection has
continued as exemplified by Figure 14.
11.21 A traffic light system (red, amber, green) is in place for the recommendations to
enable prisons to prioritise the areas where remedial action is necessary:
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Red recommendations - immediate concern - serious breaches and / or non-
55 Four prisons were inspected twice in 2014 to ensure particularly poor levels of compliance were addressed
promptly.
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