By Checkpoint of RNZ
Corrections is slashing the amount of time prisoners can spend on jail phones talking to their whānau, saying some inmates are “abusing the system” and resorting to violence and standover tactics to monopolise the phone.
Currently, prisoners make free phone calls to approved numbers for up to three hours a day, but in the new year it is being cut back to just half an hour a day.
The change was aimed at giving everyone fair access because there had been issues with some prisoners monopolising the phones, Corrections said.
But one inmate’s wife told Checkpoint the phone was a vital link to the outside world and it helped prisoners cope with being locked up.
“Some families don’t all live together. They’re going to have to decide whether they’re talking to the kids or if they talk to their partner or their mother or somebody else in their family,” she said.
“Keeping in touch with your family is a big part of rehabilitation and that is what is needed in prison is rehabilitation, so that people don’t go back there.”
Speaking on the phone is important to her partner and to her, she said.
“I speak to him a few times in the morning. He rings me in the morning to say good morning. He’ll ring me around my morning break, he’ll ring me again at lunchtime. We’ll talk about half an hour, and he always rings me to say goodnight.”
Limiting the time on the phone calls would mean they would not be able to speak about important events, she said.
“Say they’re doing a course and they’re making all this great progress. They won’t want to talk about that because they’ll want to know what’s going on with us.”
Being able to speak to each other throughout the day kept her partner grounded while in prison, she said.
“It’s the connection to the outside world. When you go to prison the punishment is getting taken out of society. It’s not to completely separate you from your family and your life.”
In a statement to Checkpoint, Corrections said the time for phone calls had been reduced as prisoners had been using standover tactics, monopolising the phones and using threats of violence.
But the prison inmate’s wife did not believe this was the case.
“Before Covid came in, with the phone calls in prison they would do phone cards. So when they had phone cards, there were standover tactics.”
“But since Covid, they’ve been given so many minutes every day free to call their families, which is great.”
In her husband’s unit, she said most prisoners were locked down at 2.30pm, so people who have been working during the day can come back to call their families.
“The punishment is getting taken out of society, you don’t keep punishing somebody when they’re in prison, you need to rehabilitate them.
“One way of rehabilitating somebody is keeping them close with their family.”
Corrections said prisoners would be able to get special permission if a significant event occurs, such as a death in the family or an emergency, and they would be able to go to prison management and ask for an extension on their call time.
She said she found this hard to believe.
“I know for a fact that the Corrections officers, the ones that are on the floor, with the prisoners every day, are not happy about this policy coming in.
“It’s the higher-ups, the people that sit behind the desks in offices that don’t actually deal with the prisoners that have pushed this.”
Limiting phone calls to 30 minutes a day would cause problems in the prison, she said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a riot because of it. Just the other day in Paremoremo, staff members got injured because the phones were turned off early.
“A prisoner or a couple of prisoners couldn’t say goodnight to their family members, and that’s how important to the inmates their calls are.”
In a statement to Checkpoint, custodial services commissioner Leigh Marsh said “the safety of our prisons and ensuring all prisoners can keep in contact with family and friends is a priority for us”.
Marsh said frontline staff had raised concerns that a small number of the same prisoners were using the phone system for long periods of time, stopping other prisoners from being able to speak with family and friends.
“In some cases, prisoners are also using threats, violence and other standover tactics to monopolise the phones and stop other prisoners from using them,” he said.
Some prisoners were not getting a fair amount of access to phone calls and were missing out on the opportunity to call their loved ones, he said.
“This can cause tension and violence in the prison units, which is potentially unsafe for our staff and other prisoners.”
Phone calls would be capped at 30 minutes per prisoner, Marsh said, to ensure all prisoners had fair access to phone calls and so they could stay in regular contact with their families and friends.
Last year, Corrections rolled out a new phone system, making phone calls for prisoners free. Previously, prisoners had to purchase phone cards to make calls, he said.
Marsh said Corrections was looking at alternative technologies to help problems with access.
“But the reality is increasing the number of handsets and the infrastructure is a very costly and very complicated operation to do.
“Physical prisons range in age from many decades old up to 100 years old to brand-new, so bringing these technologies in comes with risk and comes with significant expense.”
Corrections was looking at using wireless technology within the prison system, he said.
“In many of our prisons we’re starting to bring Wi-Fi in and if we can move to wireless technology, we can look at things like in-cell devices, which will do more than just phone calls, audio calls, they have the potential for video calls and education rehabilitation.
“We’re a little way away from that, we’ve done some trials at some of our sites, but it’s something we’re looking at, but it is a very costly venture.”
Corrections was also trialling mobile handsets at Auckland Prison, he said, “which essentially looks like a mobile phone. It isn’t - it’s a dead phone that links to a central desk and we’re able to give the prisoners access to that in a more flexible way, if they can’t get to one of the handsets on a case-by-case basis.”
Marsh said many of these handsets got smashed and broken by prisoners.
“In fact, I’ve got one site I’ve had stats for recently that had 90 phones broken in a year ... which then prohibits use for other prisoners.”
He agreed with research showing being able to make phone calls to whānau helped with rehabilitation.
“But when we have prisoners monopolising the phones for three hours at a time, if we have a 60-bed residential unit - which is quite a common-sized unit within our infrastructure - and we only have two to four phones and we have two or three prisoners that monopolise that, you’re going to have men and women in those units that don’t get access at all.
“This is about equity. This is around making sure that we have fair access across all of our prisons and it’s not monopolised by the more intimidating and aggressive individuals.”
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