Authorities make decisions about prisoners all the time. These decisions include prison transfers, access to courses, parole – you name it. These decisions are often made by considering a prisoner’s records. If the records are incomplete or inaccurate, any decision made from those records will likely be faulty, or, as the law says, “invalid”. Ensuring completeness and accuracy of your records is therefore crucial to ensuring any decisions made against you are valid decisions.

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The concern for those who are subjected to government decisions is that they often do not get to see the integrity of the information which was considered by the decision-maker and don’t get to check if it’s correct.

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In my experience, prison authorities usually do not proactively disclose the information considered in their decisions. So how can a prisoner know if that information is correct? With the help of my good friends Freedom of Information and Right to Information (FOI)!

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Understanding the need for FOI is not always clear. A strong indicator that records may be faulty is when a decision made against you seems inconsistent with similar decisions made against others in similar circumstances. In that case, FOI can assist in checking the information considered to make the decision.

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Sometimes, the decision seems okay. Nevertheless, the integrity of the records still may have been compromised and prevented an even better outcome.

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If the decision has the potential to impact your life significantly, it may be wise to use FOI to be certain of the integrity of the records considered by the decision-maker.

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Take this example. During a case review I underwent in prison, the case manager advised me that she was recommending my transfer from a medium to a low security prison. The outcome of the case review was decided by a committee. I had just completed a rehabilitation program and a post treatment report was purportedly provided to the committee for consideration. The committee’s decision was that I was to remain in medium security for assessment for participation in a rehabilitation program.

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This decision did not make sense to me so I sought a review of the decision. Through FOI, I obtained all documents considered by the committee in making their decision. Sure enough, I found that the committee did not consider the post-treatment report. I negotiated a new decision and made sure all future decisions considered this post-treatment report.

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My message to you is this: the integrity of records in decisions matters. These decisions, such as case reviews, home detention and parole applications, and many others, can have significant impact on our lives.

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FOI is reasonably accessible by all, either by making an application to the relevant FOI office in writing, or obtaining and submitting FOI application forms provided by prison authorities, or applying online if internet access is available. Your case manager should be able to provide forms and/or an address to write to.