Editorial: Challenge for boss of Corrections

New Corrections boss Ray Smith suddenly has more files of the kind he would rather not see on his desk courtesy of inmates at Hawke's Bay Regional prison.
Mr Smith, six months into a five-year term as chief executive, will not have enjoyed hearing of a second standoff at the Mangaroa Rd prison on Sunday night after a fire was lit in a cell.
Nine prisoners were evacuated to a secure recreation yard and they then staged a protest by refusing to return to their cells for several hours.
The protest followed last week's 24-hour rooftop demonstration by five different inmates.
Mr Smith will no doubt now be asking some pointed questions: How is it that inmates were in a position to access the rooftop of the prison? How is it that just days later, another prisoner can light a fire in his cell?
Part of the answer may lie in the respective security classifications of the inmates in question. Hawke's Bay Regional Prison has an inmate capacity of 666 with prisoners classified from minimum to high security.
It stands to reason that minimum security prisoners will be given more trust and privileges.
But it also stands to reason that minimum security prisoners are far less likely to be the ones who would be as provocative as to break their way onto the roof of the prison or light a fire in a cell.
And the images of inmates armed with metal bars parading on the prison roof last week were hardly consistent with the actions of men on a minimum security classification.
So how were they in a position to get up there? Corrections almost certainly has an answer to this question but, thus far, it is not information the department has seen fit to share.
In the mean time, the actions of these inmates at Hawke's will challenge Mr Smith's goal of moving away from a punishment-focused regime toward a culture of rehabilitation with the aim of reducing reoffending.
There are at least 14 prisoners at Hawke's Bay Regional Prison who have, within the space of six days, very publicly put their hands up for tougher treatment.