Musical chairs in prison showers

Bulging jails mean Auckland Prison inmates are being shuttled to courtroom cells so prisoners there can be taken back to Paremoremo prison for showers.

But the Corrections Department says the prisoners being transferred across the North Shore are not from Paremoremo's high-security wing and the risk of escape is low.

The prisoners, from low- to medium-security wings, are handcuffed, escorted in secure vans and accompanied by guards.

Auckland Prison manager Bryan McChristy said the lack of showers at the North Shore District Court meant prisoners held there had to be taken to Paremoremo for showers.

He was confident any risk of escape during transfers had been minimised, with all precautions taken.

An overflow of sentenced and remand prisoners means there is still a severe bed shortage in the country's jails a year after the crisis became public.

Auckland is the worst affected area, with police and court cells still struggling with prisoners who cannot be squeezed into jails.

The shuttling of prisoners around the city is the result of a lack of bathroom facilities at courts, so people held there have to be moved for showers.

And a July Employment Relations Authority ruling on staffing-prisoner ratios means maximum muster numbers must be strictly kept, so the jails have to temporarily shift people if others are there for showers.

Mr McChristy said that meant that if four people needed to be taken to Auckland Prison for showers, four had to be moved out while that was done.

The worst offenders held at Paremoremo were not moved at all.

At one stage a North Harbour rugby clubrooms was being used, but this was stopped after prison guards became worried about the risk of escapes.

Last month, Corrections recorded 4315 bed nights, which means every night of the month 140 inmates who could not be accommodated in jail were held in police or court cells.

A year ago, that figure was 2757 bed nights, or about 89 inmates each night.

At the Auckland District Court, 20 prisoners a night were being held last month, three times as many as a year ago, Corrections figures show.

Numbers soared last year and by this June had topped 200 a night.

The number of sentenced and remand prisoners passed 7200.

Prisoner numbers are expected to grow another 15 per cent over five years as tighter parole, sentencing and bail laws take effect.

An extra 120 prison beds are due to become available over the next two months.