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| Working meeting with the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman for England and Wales
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 On June 5, 2007, the Center for the Study of Democracy hosted a working meeting with the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman for England and Wales – Mr. Stephen Shaw.
Mr. Shaw presented the work of his office, the ways they deal with all prisoners’ complaints (around 4500 per year) and their close work with the British Refugee Council. He shared his belief that the prison institution is definitely not a failure but could actually have a real instructive effect if applied properly. He also talked about the best practices executed in England and Wales so far.
 The Prison Ombudsman is a relatively new institution in the UK and Mr. Shaw admitted that the government started thinking more about all these people after a series of prisoners’ riots, who basically wanted their problems to be heard.
When it comes to prisons there are few main monitoring mechanisms that work on these issues in the UK. The English system includes three independent monitoring bodies with substantial formal power - the Independent Inspectorate, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman and the Independent Monitoring Boards. All their members can perform checks at any time in any prison in the country.
 The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman is the newest institution – it was established in 1994. Gradually it became more and more powerful: in 2001 probation was added in the scope of the ombudsman; in 2004 the institution started investigating every death in prisons and in 2006 the Ombudsman started to work very closely with the immigration detention centers.
The Ombudsman’s office also publishes thematic reviews and a public annual report, which aim is to introduce the problems of all these people to the society.
 Mr. Shaw shared that around 98% of his recommendations are being taken into consideration and put into practice within the period defined for that. As a result the situation in all prisons has changed towards better, especially when it is about the prisons’ administration. He defined one of his office's biggest success the great improvement of the health care system in prison - upon initiative of the Ombudsman the National Health Service is now in charge of the health care services in the English prisons.
Mr. Shaw was interested in knowing more about the Bulgarian ombudsman institution and got informed about it by Dr. Maria Yordanova, Director of the CSD Law Program and Mr. Dimitar Markov, Project Coordinator in the CSD Law Program. Mr. Shaw also answered all the questions of all those present.
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