People in prison are forced to attempt to resolve issues through an internal facility communications procedure, called the Grievance form, this process exclusive to people in prison seeking solutions or responses from prison staff

Grievance formats vary from department to department, see one from TDCJ below

TX-reqForm.png

Forms often make use of check lists to streamline prisoner concerns, some of which strain to fit listed topics (see above), most forms allow requestors to write their exact concerns. These open ended forms are usually filed with counselor staff rather than with corrections officers (see below)

Req to Staff form - PADOC.png

Forms are often meticulously detailed, some prisoners are able to. coordinate mass grievance request concerning a shared issue. In these cases, people in prison often get responses in the form of notices with case numbers like these

Denied Remedy Req copy.png

More often the same form used to record the complaint is used to record the department response, see examples of completed forms with case issues raised below to the left from the BOP which is also the case at the state level in FL, shown below on the right

Fed-resolutionForm.png

FL inmate req form.png

And in CDCr

CA inmate request form.png

And WADOC

grievance-form-religious obsv.png

In most cases prisoner requests, or hope for resolution fail to be met through this process. The grievance process works morseo to document incidents towards potential policy adjustments rather than to provide immediate solutions for people in prison.

This process also restricts the possibility for accountability externally.