Such visits had first been temporarily suspended when New Zealand entered alert level 4 lockdown in March 2020 and remained suspended throughout alert level 3 until May 2020.
When the country moved back into alert level 4 in August 2021, they were suspended again. Only Auckland and north Waikato Corrections sites had visits remain suspended past September 7 last year.
On January 23 this year, all prison sites again suspended face-to-face visits due to the increased risk posed by the community outbreak due to the Omicron variant, a spokesperson for Corrections said.
"The safety and wellbeing of our staff, the community, and people in prison is our highest priority, and visits will resume in individual prisons when they can be safely undertaken.
"Not all prisons will be ready to resume visits at the same time, depending on levels of Covid-19 at different sites, and staffing available."
Criminal lawyer Nigel Hampton KC told 1news that he believes the issue raises concerns over a breach of human rights.
"I think it is. It's so fundamental," he said.
"The severity of the restrictions that are being imposed on face-to-face contact is I think a breach of the rights on either side, both prisoner and family."
The spokesperson maintained face-to-face visits had been replaced with "other means" of communication, such as more phone calls, audio-visual links where available, and postal, courier and email communication in line with legally privileged correspondence/documents processes.
Corrections has also supplied prisoners with a $5 phone card weekly.
