KEY POINTS:
Corrections Association president Beven Hanlon today supported a call for prison staff to be properly equipped for the job following a riot at the weekend.
New Zealand First MP Ron Mark said yesterday that prison staff should be provided with stab-proof vests and armed with electric stun guns.
Today Mr Hanlon said: "Police have handcuffs, batons, pepper spray and stab-proof vests to keep them safe from the people they may come into contact with.
"Corrections officers...only have a cotton uniform. Yet every day on every shift corrections officers are expected to walk amongst the very people that the police may come across."
But it was not just a matter of arming all the staff and expecting everything to work out, Mr Hanlon said.
"We need to address the entire management of prisoners and to train staff in de-escalation techniques so that these tools don't need to be used in the first place."
Mr Hanlon said New Zealand's prisons were becoming more and more violent with "stabbings, riots, serious beatings and murders".
"If we are expected to continue to do this job we must have the tools to do it safely," he said.
Procedures at the restive Rimutaka Prison in Upper Hutt are now being overhauled following the weekend riot and earlier incidents.
Up to 15 inmates took control of their block at the unit for five hours on Saturday, some scaling the roof, damaging walls and bashing skylights during the rampage.
Police and off-duty prison officers were called in to regain order.
Corrections Department chief executive Barry Matthews said today Rimutaka Prison was returning to normal and the department was investigating how the prisoners were able to riot as they did.
The rioting youths were being held in isolation and questioned over who started Saturday's fracas and criminal charges were likely, he told Radio New Zealand.
The investigation was taking place against a background of changes to the way things were done at the Rimutaka unit, one of three in the country.
"We've had more difficulty with this youth unit than with any of the others. Obviously we want to know why we have had the problems, when we haven't had the same problems with the other units," he said.
Mr Matthews added: "We've already started making some changes. It's a matter of changing the culture of the prison."
- NZPA, NZHERALD STAFF
