The System of Prisoners’ Complaints in Romania: Law vs. Practice

This chapter provides an overview on how prisoners’ right to complain is both regulated by the law and exercised in practice in Romania. The chapter starts with a short consideration about the emergence of a human rights culture in Romania after the fall of communism. This is followed by a discussion about the reformation of the prison legislation. The main parts of the chapter focus on: (1) the legal provisions that regulate prisoners’ right to complain, stressing the key similarities and differences with the European norms; (2) the practice of relevant institutions in charge with handling prisoners’ complaints, with an emphasis on challenging aspects; and (3) prisoners’ perceptions and experiences with complaints, starting from the results of a previous exploratory study on prisoners’ rights, conducted in 2016.