Auckland Prison houses the country's most dangerous criminals, including those in the Prisoners of Extreme Risk Unit. Photo / NZME
The prisons union is backing the Government’s new plan for managing the country’s worst inmates, but one prisoner advocate says it still breaches international standards.
A new bill making its way through Parliament would change the way prison staff manage inmates in the Prisoner of Extreme Risk Unit (Peru) after a scathing inspection from the Chief Ombudsman.
The results of that inspection, released in December 2024, said the treatment of inmates in the unit was cruel, inhumane and breached the United Nations Convention Against Torture.
The bill would also expand entitlements for prisoners of extreme risk “to mitigate the effects of being managed in a more restrictive manner”.
These special entitlements included extending the minimum phone call entitlement to at least two hours per week and requiring that prisoners be placed in a cell with an adjacent yard that they have reasonable access to.
The bill also explicitly prohibits prolonged solitary confinement and requires prisoners to have the opportunity to receive at least 10 hours of meaningful human contact in any 14-day period.
Canterbury Howard League president Cosmo Jeffrey said that still falls short of the Nelson Mandela Rules, which state no one should be kept in a prison for longer than 22 hours per day without meaningful human contact.
“[The Government] is going to allow five hours per week – that’s 40 minutes per day. That is less than half of what the Government signed up to under the United Nations convention.”
Under the Mandela Rules, solitary confinement that continues for more than 15 days is considered “prolonged”.
Christine McCarthy, a senior lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington who specialises in prison infrastructure research, said better protections are needed.
“Ten hours of meaningful human contact in a two-week period won’t protect against prolonged solitary confinement – the UN requires at least two hours per day.”
The bill would also broaden the power of Corrections to segregate prisoners if they “would otherwise commit an offence, recruit or radicalise others into an ideology that is likely to cause harm, or recruit others into an organised criminal group”.
Custodial services commissioner Sean Mason said there had been an increase in the small number of people “with extreme views or who pose an extreme risk to prison or public safety and therefore need a higher degree of custodial management”.
“While only a small number, the impact these prisoners can have on themselves or others needs to be appropriately managed, with clear statutory powers,” he said.
Jeffrey said the bill’s definitions are broad.
“This Government has defined gangs as organised criminal groups. You can ask anybody who has anything to do with prisons – almost everyone in prison is forced one way or another to join a gang.”
Corrections Association president Floyd du Plessis said the definition covered most prisoners and he hoped it would specify what level of segregation should apply, but the bill overall wouldn’t do much to change how prisons operate.
“We are talking about the absolute worst offenders in the country and people that cannot safely be kept with others. The need to completely segregate some of them is always going to be there.
“[The bill] helps to quantify how we do that, but it doesn’t change the fact that it will happen and it needs to happen”.
The bill also aims to make the process of designating a prisoner as an extreme risk more transparent by giving the Department of Corrections chief executive the ultimate decision after considering an advisory panel’s recommendations.
Du Plessis backed the change and said it should mean there is a clearly articulated process around the factors leading to the decision.
“The only area that needs consideration is expansion of [the Peru], given we are working in a far more dangerous society today than we were 10 years ago.”
There are currently 16 inmates in the Peru, including the Christchurch mosque terrorist, with a capacity for 18.
In December 2024, then-Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier released his scathing report into the unit, which he said subjected prisoners to prolonged and potentially indefinite solitary confinement with limited access to natural light and fresh air.
He found the unit had grown in scope and purpose for five years with little scrutiny and consultation, and ultimately recommended Corrections end the way it ran the site.
Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell said the bill underscored the Government’s commitment to restore law and order.
“It will see real and practical steps taken to enhance prison and public safety. It will also create a clearer and stronger legislative framework to manage prisoners who pose an extreme risk to prison and public safety, while balancing natural justice.”
The Corrections (Management of Prisoners, and Prisoners’ Property) Amendment Bill was introduced to Parliament in mid-March after public consultation and policy options being presented to the minister.
It is set down for its first reading, which will determine if it moves to the select committee process.
Jordan Dunn is a multimedia reporter based in Auckland with a focus on crime, social issues, policing and local issues. He joined Newstalk ZB in 2024 from Radio New Zealand, where he started as an intern out of the New Zealand Broadcasting School.