New Zealand: government announces plans to beef up prisons inspection regime

New Zealand’s prisons inspection regime is being beefed up, with the Government announcing regular reviews of all prisons and a new inspection team.

The announcement comes the day after a release of an Ombudsman’s report accusing prisons of breaching the UN Convention Against Torture through excessive use of restraints.

On Wednesday, Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier released a report into the use of restraint in prisons which found the use of tie-down beds and restraints in five separate cases - including one where a self-harming prisoner was restrained for 16 hours a day over 37 consecutive nights - constituted “cruel, inhuman or degrading” treatment.

Corrections Minister Louise Upston said the changes were signed off before the report was released, but its findings demonstrated the public interest in having more information about the prison system.

“They do want to understand what a happens, some of the complexities, and I think from yesterday they’ve learned a bit more about some of the very very challenging prisoners that the staff have to deal with.”

Upston said regular, “proactive” reviews of all prisons would be introduced, with inspections every 20 months and more frequently for high-risk sites.

A new prisons inspection team would be set up to manage the inspections, “ring-fenced” from the general Corrections inspectorate which would continue to investigate specific complaints.

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