Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner - July 2016
being inspected. The majority of the inspections take place over one day. Inspections of
the larger capacity or high security (Category A) prisons may take place over two days.
10.14 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 and the relevant PSIs and policies are scrutinised. A typical inspection
includes examination of the following areas:
•
•
•
•
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.
10.15 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 state that the recommendations have been implemented, or what progress
has been made.
600
6
500
5
400
155
143
4
163
300
200
3
273
2
245
188
100
0
78
average no. of recommendations
per inspection
total number of recommendations
Figure 17 Total red, amber & green recommendations from prison inspections 2013-2015
1
65
76
58
2013
2014
2015
88 inspections
100 inspections
74 inspections
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