5 Jun 2018

Prison overcrowding - how is the system coping?

From Nine To Noon, 9:09 am on 5 June 2018

With the country's prisons busting at the seams with a ballooning inmate population, and the government scrapping plans to build a three thousand bed mega-prison, how is the system coping? Janis Adair the Chief Inspector of Prisons, whose job it is to independently investigate all prisons, complaints by prisoners, all deaths in custody as well as special investigations. In the most recent report released into Waikeria Prison, Ms Adair's team highlighted a range of issues including overcrowding, at-risk prisoners being kept in their cells 22 hours a day and the strip search area being visible from neighbouring offices.