7 Jul 2017

Unannounced visit from Ombudsman reveals unsafe prison

From Morning Report, 7:17 am on 7 July 2017

Concerns about prisoner safety and bullying have been raised in an Ombudsman's report into Hawke's Bay Regional Prison.

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Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly

A team from the office made an unannounced inspection of the prison late last year and Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier described it as an institution of two halves.

He said there was a pronounced difference between the conditions and atmosphere in the high-and low-security units.

The high-security area presented a number of challenges, he said.

"There was a clear and urgent need for the prison to address the levels of violence and intimidation that are features of too many prisoners' experience, particularly in the high-security units."

"I saw no evidence of a gang management strategy, and anti-bullying efforts were ineffective in addressing predatory behaviour."

But the Department of Corrections' chief custodial officer, Neil Beales, told Morning Report the prison had put in place measures to try to break the influence of gangs, but it was not easy.

"There's no evidence [of] fight clubs operating at Hawke's Bay.

"The report does highlight some areas where prisoners were doing some conditioning in some of the exercise yards, you know, sparring or fighting, and the staff took the necessary action.

"You can't prevent everything from happening at all times and we just need to be on top of that," Mr Beales said.