Read all about it! The Investigator Issue 8

Decorative image from inside a prison.

Welcome to Issue 8 of The Investigator!

This issue brings together articles on work across our complaints and fatal incident functions, and a paper written by one of the academics we are working with to strengthen the impact of our work.

At the time of issuing this newsletter, we are still doing most of our investigations and other work remotely, including carrying out interviews via video and telephone calls. However, in response to the easing of some restrictions, some of our investigators have now gone back into prisons and we will look at how we can do more in person visits as our business recovery plans progress.

Our work to make more people in prison and their families and friends aware of the PPO and our investigations, continues. We write regular articles for Inside Time, advertise on Prison Radio and are updating and reissuing the posters and leaflets provided in establishments that outline who we are and how to contact us. We are using also social media (@PPOmbudsman) to provide updates for families and those with an interest in our work.

Since the Investigator was last issued, we have published a Learning Lessons Bulletin in which we outline what we found in the first investigations we carried out into deaths attributed to COVID-19. That bulletin is available on our website and we plan to issue further bulletins into our investigations during the pandemic in the coming months.

I hope you enjoy reading the articles we have included this time and that they give you a sense of the work we are doing to support our complaints and fatal incident investigations, further strengthening the impact we can have and the difference we can make.

Thank you for reading.

Sue McAllister CB, Prisons and Probation Ombudsman

To read this newsletter as a PDF, click here

This month's featured articles:

Post-release deaths

What actually happens when you make a complaint?

How can I contact the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman?

Prisoner death investigations: a means for improving safety in prisons and societies?

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