Hawke's Bay prison assault: Dept of Corrections begins review

The Sensible Sentencing Trust believes the Department of Corrections isn't doing enough to prevent more assaults against staff like the one last week at Hawke's Bay Regional Prison. Photo / NZME

Union warnings about assaults in prisons were sent less than a month before a violent assault on a corrections officer at Hawke's Bay Regional Prison last week.

An upcoming Department of Corrections review into the assault on Wednesday, when a Mongrel Mob inmate stabbed an officer 12 times in the face, will determine if anything could have been done differently.

Darroch Ball of the Sensible Sentencing Trust revealed in a statement that Floyd Du Plessis, president of the Corrections Association of New Zealand (CANZ), sent a letter to the chief executive of the Department of Corrections and also to Minister of Corrections Kelvin Davis.

"We cannot, and will not, allow things to drag on. Our members/your staff deserve better leadership, better training, better support and better and safer working conditions... And there is no time left to waste, because another staff member will have been assaulted or worse, killed on duty and under your watch...," Du Plessis said in the letter, sent on June 1.

Ball said minister Kelvin Davis was ignoring the situation.

"The minister continues to not only ignore the situation but to make excuses for it - saying it is only because of the increased reporting that the numbers are increasing," Ball said.

"If he would only speak to the frontline officers he may understand that is simply not true, that they are under attack every day, and they are coming to the end of their tether."

Ball blames a "cotton wool approach" to prison management for the risk to staff and apparently increasing numbers of assaults against officers in prisons.

"There has been a massive increase in the number of assaults against staff over the past five years. There were 436 assaults in 2017, and it has jumped to 909 in 2022. And a corresponding jump of workdays missed [due] to the assaults from 706 days in 2017, to 6257 in 2022," he said.

"This is all during the much-lauded drop in prison muster by nearly 30 per cent."

Corrections Deputy National Commissioner Leigh Marsh said there will be a review to determine if anything could have been done differently with the assault last week. Photo / NZME

A Department of Corrections spokesperson said the assault statistics Ball cited were not from comparable timeframes and the current ones could be subject to change up to and once the full year-end process has concluded.

"The 2017 figure is for the financial year (1 July 2016 - 30 June 2017) while the statistics for 2022 are from 4 May 2021 - 3 May 2022 due to the timing of an Official information Act request from CANZ."

The spokesperson said Corrections had recently put a strong focus on ensuring that all incidents of assault, regardless of whether they result in injury, are recorded and numbers have risen as a result.

"If we record every single incident, there is a greater chance that we can address the causes of that violent or aggressive action at an earlier stage, rather than seeing it amount to something much more serious in the long term," the spokesperson said.

Corrections Deputy National Commissioner Leigh Marsh said Corrections will be conducting a review to determine if anything could have been done differently with the assault last week.

"In the case of the recent assault at Hawkes Bay Regional Prison, the prisoner was unlocked for recreation purposes and staff were taking him a trolley to collect his property as he was being moved to another prison, when he suddenly assaulted one staff member with an improvised weapon. Other staff immediately intervened and restrained the prisoner," Marsh said.

He said assaults of any kind and severity were unacceptable.

"Prisoners will be held to account for their behaviour. This may be through internal misconduct charges, a change in security classification, or referral to police for consideration of criminal prosecution."

He said safety of staff was an "absolute priority" for Corrections and they had a number of measures in place and were always looking at what more they could do.

Existing measures include de-escalation and communication training, stab-resistant vests, body-worn cameras and pepper spray, reviews of incident footage and many new updates to reporting of assaults and training developed through a plan in collaboration with CANZ in 2021.

Minister Kelvin Davis was approached for comment, but did not respond.