By EUGENE BINGHAM political reporter
Prisoners can still phone criminal associates without being tapped. Prisoners are still phoning their criminal associates unchecked because of the failure to set up a monitoring system ordered by Parliament last year.
Wrangling over the price of equipment means the system is unlikely to begin operating until next August, nearly two years after Parliament passed "urgently needed" legislation empowering the Department of Corrections to eavesdrop on inmates.
Opposition MPs say crimes are being organised over prison phones every day that goes by without monitoring, and have slated the Government for not ensuring the system is up and running.
"I understand the cabinet has already refused to fund such a scheme," said Act deputy leader Ken Shirley.
"This is a short-sighted strategy, as the cost to society of the crimes organised from within prison far outweighs the cost of the monitoring."
Parliament changed the law in October last year to allow the department to listen in to all inmates' calls except for conversations with lawyers and prison watchdogs such as the Ombudsman.
The system was supposed to be operating by the middle of this year, but the department says it is now working to a deadline of August 31 next year.
In 1998, Arthur Taylor and three fellow inmates used phones and computers to organise their breakout from the medium security wing of Auckland Prison at Paremoremo.
Shortly after his recapture, Taylor rang the Holmes television show from his prison wing.
The department's general manager of policy development, Christina Rush, said: "We are currently still looking at what might by the most appropriate monitoring system for us to use, given certain cost parameters."
She refused to comment further.
It is understood the department has been talking to Telecom about an appropriate system but is still investigating the costs and requirements involved.
Last month, the Herald filed an Official Information Act request for cabinet decisions and reports on progress towards implementing the system.
On Friday, Ms Rush sought a further 10 days in which to decide whether to divulge the reports, saying there had not been sufficient time to consult other parties about the release of the information.
A spokesman for the Minister of Corrections, Matt Robson, declined to comment until further information was available.
National's justice spokesman, Tony Ryall, criticised the Government for its tardiness.
He said he found it ironic that the Government had not used powers to tap criminals' phone calls but was pushing ahead with changes that would force internet companies to install permanent bugs, enabling the computer communications of ordinary people to be bugged.
When the prison phone-tap law was passed with the support of the Labour Party, the then Minister of Corrections, Clem Simich, said it was urgently needed.
He cited departmental reports revealing the extent of crimes being planned over prison phones.
Cases included a jail-to-jail conference between Mongrel Mob members hatching a bank robbery plot that ended with the murder of Naenae man Bill Brown.
The department's chief executive, Mark Byers, told a select committee last week that prisoners were allowed to dial only certain approved numbers, such as family members' homes, but there was no way of knowing who would answer the phone at the other end.
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