Prisoners fear 'reprisals' if they make complaints, study finds

The majority of prisoners don't believe the complaints system in jails works and almost half worry about "reprisals" if complaints are lodged.

A new study that gathered the views of more than 500 inmates also found that more than 40% would consider suing the prison system if they had an issue, but most would wait until after they had left jail.

The findings are contained in new research, Prison Law: Prisoner Experiences of Accountability Mechanisms in Ireland, carried out by Sophie Van Der Valk of the School of Law in Trinity College Dublin.

The views of 508 prisoners from three jails were gathered, in addition to in-depth interviews, finding that participants "had low expectations of prison conditions and their rights which contributed to a tolerance of certain treatment".

The Office of the Inspector of Prisons and the Visiting Committees carry out inspections in Irish prisons, while Ireland is also visited by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment. However, while there was a relatively high level of recognition for Visiting Committees, the other bodies were less well known and the faith of inmates in the effectiveness of the complaints system was low.

"A theme common across the data was that people in prison cannot rely on the prison institution to share information about human rights or to provide information about avenues for recourse and oversight," it said. "Rather, the onus is on people in prison to seek out this information for themselves, which can result in them being labelled a ‘troublemaker’."

While just over one-in-five inmates in the study had made a complaint, "there was a perception amongst prisoners that engaging with accountability bodies could result in negative consequences in the prison.

"Reprisals were a concern for almost half of the survey respondents with 45.4% agreeing or strongly agreeing with the statement that ‘prisoners who make complaints are punished by staff’. 

"This is an important finding as the risk of reprisals can act as a strong deterrent for those making a complaint, especially in light of other concerns such as the feeling among prisoners that the complaint does not work ... and the finding in response to the statement ‘Prisoners who complain get what they want in prison’, where 76.3% of respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement."

In addition, "there was a sense among some participants that they would lose the trust of other prisoners through complaining due to the perceived secrecy of putting in a complaint."

Recommendations include increasing awareness and trust about inspections and improving access to the complaint system and the Inspector of Prisons.