Corrections says rosters will address UN prisoner violations
Monday, 29 July 2019
New Zealand's chief prison officer says improved staff rosters at Invercargill prison is helping address United Nations prisoner treatment violations.
A report released last week by the Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier, after an April inspection, revealed the prison had contravened UN regulations and failed to meet six of 18 recommendations made to the prison in 2016.
Boshier said the prison serving evening meals at 4pm contravened Rule 22 of the Nelson Mandela Rules for prisoner treatment.
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'Every prisoner shall be provided by the prison administration at the usual hours with food of nutritional value adequate for health and strength, of wholesome quality and well prepared and served,' the rule states.
'This is a contravention of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners,' Boshier said.
Department of Corrections chief custodial officer Neil Beales said there 'may be valid safety, security and capacity reasons for a recommendation not being addressed'.
'An example of this is a recommendation from the Ombudsman that Corrections should standardise meal times,' he said.
Beales said a new staff rostering programme called Making Shifts Work was 'designed to deliver flexible roster patterns that provide safer and better working conditions for corrections officers and create more opportunities for increased rehabilitation and structured activity for prisoners'.
Beales said current shift patterns were inflexible and posed constraints on prisoner unlock hours, including meal times.
'At a time when the benefits of greater unlock hours are well established, we are seeking to improve rehabilitative and reintegrative opportunities for prisoners.'
However, Boshier said the 'inspectors observed notable improvements to the general living conditions across the entire prison'.
The 2019 inspection found the prison had achieved or partially achieved 12 of 18 recommendations.
The Ombudsman told the prison in 2016 that conditions for prisoners held on remand, those who not been found guilty of a crime, needed to improve.
Beales said about one third of the roughly 170 prisoner population were on remand on any given night.
One of the 2016 recommendations from the Ombudsman was the prison needed to improve general living conditions for remand prisoners including accommodation, constructive activities and recreation space.
The 2019 inspection found this was partially achieved.
'Remand prisoners continued to be double-bunked in cells built for one. A lack of internal recreation space and purposeful activity for this group of prisoners remained an issue,' the Ombudsman said.
The other five outstanding recommendations that the prison did not achieve from the 2016 inspection were that they had cameras facing the cells of high-risk mental health prisoners at the toilet areas and all toilets needed privacy screening.
The prison has also been notified to once again try and improve high-risk mental health prisoners receiving specialist input and therapeutic intervention, prisoners being informally locked down at 4.45pm, standardised meal times and prisoners having better access to audio-visual technology to contact family.