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 lawfulness of the disciplinary sanction imposed.
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 prosecutor or other empowered official, for example a police officer. This investigation will be carried out according to the Criminal Procedure Code. If you believe that a crime has been committed against you, you should alert the prison staff or the head of the prison. They should pass that information on further to the official responsible or to the investigator.
If you have been subjected to violence from prison staff or involved in a violent conflict with prison staff, it will be investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office. You should write directly to the Prosecutor’s Office or submit your complaint to the head of the prison. He/she must forward your application further to the Prosecutor’s Office.
If another inmate commits a crime against you and you believe that the crime has not been investigated properly by the prosecutor– 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 hierarchically superior prosecutor of the one that refused to initiate the criminal investigation or failed to carry out an effective investigation. The hierarchically superior prosecutor’s ordinance is subject to complaint to the investigative judge. The decision of the investigative judge in certain cases may be appealed to the higher-level court (the relevant Court of Appeal).
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 decision on disciplinary sanction imposed on you is unlawful, you should submit through the prison administration a complaint to the investigative judge within 3 working days from the communication of the decision.
You can further appeal the decision of the investigative judge to the relevant Court of Appeal. This procedure is described in the Execution Code and Criminal Procedure Code.
The decision regarding your transfer from one prison to another of the same type, may be challenged by you to the investigative judge, except for the case when the reason for transfer was that the maximum allowed by law capacity of accommodation of the penitentiary is exceeded.