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  • Community corrections complaints

  • Prison complaints

  • Prison healthcare complaints

  • Information privacy complaints

Community corrections complaints 

If you have a complaint about community corrections (for example, you feel you are not being treated fairly), you can discuss this with your community correctional services (CCS) officer. If you feel that is not satisfactory, you may ask to speak with a Senior Officer. If you are still unsatisfied, you may put your concerns in writing to the Regional General Manager of the CCS location.  

Prison complaints 

To complain about a general issue to do with prison, you can: 

  1. Discuss your complaint with prison management, if possible.  
  1. Direct your complaint in writing to the prison’s General Manager. 
  1. Contact Corrections Victoria. 

If you are not satisfied with how prison management or Corrections Victoria has dealt with your complaint, you can contact the Victorian Ombudsman (External link). 

How to contact the Victorian Ombudsman from prison 

  • Phone: People in prison can use the freecall line to telephone the Victorian Ombudsman from 9 am to 5 pm on weekdays. Enter prisoner ID then PIN *05. Calls are not monitored or recorded. Calls are limited to 12 minutes. 
  • Post: Letters to and from the Victorian Ombudsman are considered exempt mail and are treated confidentially. 

Prison healthcare complaints 

To make a complaint about healthcare received in prison: 

  1. The person in prison should complete a complaint form, which can be supplied by their health service or accommodation unit. Once the form is completed, the person in prison can speak to the person in charge of the health services at their prison and try to address the problem. 
  1. To make a healthcare complaint on behalf of someone in prison, contact the health service provider for that location. For a list of health service providers, see About Justice Health.  
  1. If you are not satisfied with the health service’s response, you can complain to Justice Health. 

If you believe a complaint has not been properly dealt with by Justice Health, you can complain to: 

How to contact the Health Complaints Commissioner from prison 

  • Phone: People in prison can use the freecall line to telephone the Health Complaints Commissioner. Enter prisoner ID then PIN *06. Calls are not monitored or recorded. Calls are limited to 12 minutes. 
  • Post: Letters to and from the Health Complaints Commissioner are considered exempt mail and are treated confidentially.  

How to contact the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission from prison 

  • Phone: Person in prison can use the freecall line to call the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission. Enter prisoner ID then PIN *03. Calls are not monitored or recorded. Calls are limited to 12 minutes. 
  • Post: Letters to and from the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commissioner are considered exempt mail and are treated confidentially. 

Information privacy complaints 

Learn about how Corrections Victoria manages the personal information of people in prison and visitors in ‘Respecting your privacy’ brochures. 

Make an information privacy complaint 

If you are not satisfied with the way that Corrections Victoria has handled personal information, you can make a complaint.  

To make a privacy complaint: 

  1. Talk to the Unit Supervisor at the prison or write to the prison’s General Manager. 
  1. Contact the Department of Justice and Community Safety’s Information Privacy Unit (External link). 

If you believe Corrections Victoria or the department’s Information Privacy Unit has not dealt with your privacy complaint properly, you can complain to the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC) (External link). 

Complaints about family violence information 

If you are not satisfied with the way that Corrections Victoria has handled information relating to family violence information sharing under Part 5A of the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 (External link), please either:  

Complaints about health information 

The law treats health information differently to other personal information. If you are not satisfied with the way health information has been handled, you can make a complaint to the Health Complaints Commissioner (External link). 

How to contact OVIC from prison 

  • Phone: Ask staff how to make a phone call to OVIC using the Prisoner Telephone System. Calls to OVIC are exempt from recording and monitoring. 
  • Post: Letters to and from OVIC are considered exempt mail and are treated confidentially.  
About the corrections system

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