Corrections apologise over family contact delay after Mt Eden Corrections Facility homicide

A man died in Mt Eden Corrections Facility on Friday. It took Corrections until today to contact his family. Photo / Michael Craig

Corrections has apologised over a delay in contacting the family of a man killed at Mt Eden Corrections Facility.

About 4pm on Friday police learned a man had died “following an incident”.

Police said the death was being treated as a homicide.

This morning the dead inmate’s family said they had not heard from Corrections, and had only been contacted by police.

Mt Eden Corrections Facility general manager Dion Paki apologised for the delay in contacting the prisoner’s family and “for causing them added distress during this difficult time”.

“It was always my intention to reach out to them to offer my condolences and support, and I have done so today.

“When a person passes away in prison, police are responsible for notifying the next of kin first before Corrections contacts loved ones.”

Paki said they were informed police had contacted the man’s next of kin on Friday and Corrections were awaiting confirmation from police of the family’s correct contact details.

“As we hadn’t been able to verify these through our own records.

“However, I acknowledge we should have followed this up much faster and found alternative ways to confirm the next of kin so we could contact them.

“Again, I am extremely sorry for not contacting them much sooner and fully accept we should have done better.”

Paki earlier said Corrections would also carry out a full investigation and “will ensure all evidence is provided to police”.

“As the prisoner was in a double-bunked cell, the second prisoner who was residing in the cell has been moved to a single cell,” Paki said.

“We would like to express our sincere condolences to everyone impacted at this difficult time.”

Katie Harris is an Auckland-based journalist who covers issues including sexual assault, workplace misconduct, media, crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2020.

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