In some situations you have to submit your complaint to special institutions created for dealing with a specific type of claim, such as the investigation of crimes or the assessment of the quality of medical care.
Generally, you have to submit your complaint to a specific body, when the prison administration would not be considered sufficiently qualified or independent to review your complaint, and when there are other institutions created for the examination of such types of claims.
The most common exceptions to the general procedure are:
If a fellow inmate has committed a crime against you, it will be examined by an investigator who is usually a member of the prison staff. This investigation will be carried out according to the Code of Criminal Procedure. If you believe that a crime has been committed against you, you should alert the prison service (vanglateenistus) of the prison. They should pass that information on further to the official responsible or to the investigator.
If you have been involved in a violent conflict with prison staff, it will be investigated by the Internal Security Bureau. You should write directly to the Internal Security Bureau or submit your complaint to the head of the prison. He/she must forward your application further to the Internal Security Bureau.
Internal Control Division from the Department of Prisons of the Ministry of Justice makes sure that prison staff refrains from violations of law. Furthermore, the Division processes offences, exercising supervision over prisons and carrying out surveillance and criminal proceedings in prison as well as collection and analysis of information. Therefore you should also write complaint to the Internal Control Division in case you have been the victim of violence from prison staff.
If another inmate commits a crime against you and you believe that the crime has not been investigated properly by the prison investigator – e.g. criminal proceedings have not been initiated, when they should have been, or the investigation is ineffective or inappropriate – you should complain about this to the prosecutor.
Crimes or violence committed by prison officers will be investigated by the Internal Control Division from the Department of Prisons of the Ministry of Justice. If you believe that a crime has not been investigated properly, you should complain about it to the supervising prosecutor.
If you do not know which prosecutor to write to, you can simply address your complaint to the prosecution in general. Your complaint will be forwarded to the relevant official within the prosecution.
If you believe that the medical care provided to you was insufficient or inappropriate, or the doctor did not fulfil his/her obligations properly, you should submit a complaint to the Health Board.
You have the possibility to
- take a second opinion from other doctor
- turn to the manager, the quality manager or the head of the service of the health care institution who provided the service
- turn to Ministry of Social Affairs in order to receive expert assessment of the medical care received by you
- turn to Health Board with a complaint
- in certain cases initiate criminal procedure against the medical service provider and/or civil procedure to cover the damages (compensation for damage) and/or administrative procedure in Ministry of Social Affairs
If you are employed in prison either by a state institution or a private employer, all disputes related to employment are to be resolved according to the procedure set out in the Code of Civil Procedure and in the Employment Contracts Act. You may also submit a complaint to the Labour Inspectorate.
If you receive bad quality food (for example, expired products or an inappropriately prepared meal etc.) or the portions are too small, you should first complain to the prison service.
If the prison service cannot or does not solve the problem, you can complain further to the Administrative Court.