PPO Articles archive

“I think it’s important prison staff have a better understanding of why the PPO investigate such events; it’s not a witch hunt to find somebody to blame.”   I’m James, the new Strategy Officer at the PPO. I recently joined… Read More

“It’s about assuring prisoners and detainees that you (or someone close to you) can talk or write to any of us about anything, no matter how sensitive or potentially serious, without fear of negative consequences.”   We hope that you… Read More

“Every year at least 30 prisoners die accidentally as a result of drug use.”   The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO), which is completely independent of the Prison Service, investigates prisoners’ complaints and all deaths in prison. In Inside Time’s… Read More

“I knew that our work would benefit from the knowledge and perspective that people with lived experience would bring to it.”   One of the first things I did when I became the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman was to set… Read More

This article first featured in the April edition of Inside Time, written by the PPO for prisoners and detainees. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) independently investigates complaints from people in prison, Young Offender Institutions, Secure Training Centres, immigration detention and on… Read More

As part of the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman 2019/21 Strategic Plan, we identified a priority project in which we, as an organisation, could look at ways we can improve relationships with our services in remit, in order to facilitate effective… Read More

  Since March 2020, the whole of the UK has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and there have been many changes to how prisons, probation services and immigration removal centres function. In December 2020, the PPO published our first… Read More