TOP STORY: Shells instead of cells

ROSE HARDING
It was supposed to be a barbecue in the bush - a reward for a year's hard slog.
Instead, eight Hawke's Bay prison inmates enjoyed a trip to the beach, and it has caused political uproar.
The minimum security inmates were working in forestry gangs in the Mohaka Forest late last year.
To celebrate a good year's performance, they were allowed to take food and a barbecue for a meal after work.
However, the two prison officers supervising the group took the men to the beach for a three or four-hour break away from prison walls.
Corrections Inmate Employment (CIE) national operations manager Robin Benefield said the two officers had been disciplined for the breach of Corrections Department policy.
However, Mr Benefield said, the incident should not detract from the success of the forestry gangs work policy.
"It is one area where the inmates have a realistic chance of employment when they are released."
The incident came to public attention when National MP Simon Power released details of the answers to a series of questions put to Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor.
"What were they doing on a public beach?" Mr Power asked.
"Playing beach volleyball, having a picnic, body surfing, gathering shells, or were they part of some rehabilitation course?"
Mr O'Connor replied: "On 20 December 2005 a small group of minimum security prisoners went to a beach under the supervision of two staff.
"This was an unauthorised location and therefore a breach of policy. The department undertook an investigation into this and appropriate disciplinary action has been taken."
The prison officers' union, the Corrections Association of New Zealand, which represents CIE staff, is locked in an industrial dispute with the Corrections' Department over pay and conditions.
Yesterday, staff staged pickets outside prisons all over the country.
The Association has also decried a scheme in which segregated unit inmates are contracted to pick apples in Hawke's Bay orchards as "profiteering gone mad".
Corrections Association president Beven Hanlon said the department stood to make about $630,000 profit from the 22-week scheme, with contract rates of $30 a bin. Hawke's Bay Prison management has allowed 20 segregated inmates, including sex offenders, to work at the orchards.