Prisoner Lance Lee takes Corrections to court in battle for meds and hearing aid batteries

Rolleston prisoner Lance Michael Lee sought the High Court's help in seeking tailored medication and free batteries for his hearing aids. The court declined his bid for a review of decisions not to provide him what he wanted. Photo / NZME composite

A prisoner with insomnia and a sore back says denying him the medication he wants and free batteries for his hearing aids is unlawful and he has taken his battle to court.

Lance Michael Lee said he was in “dire need” of specific medication to numb and alleviate his lower back pain, and that insomnia was a “very serious illness” that could lead to severe mental health consequences.

He claimed that antipsychotics and benzodiazepines were the appropriate medications to treat his insomnia.

When Corrections refused to grant his requests, he took his grievance to the High Court.

According to a recently released High Court decision, Lee, who has a self-confessed methamphetamine habit, argued he was a vulnerable person while in custody who was unable to provide medical care for himself.

Lee iscurrently serving time in Rolleston Prison, but the decision doesn’t make it clear what he was convicted of.

The High Court at Christchurch has dismissed a prisoner's claim that denying him his preferred medicine and free batteries for his hearing aids was a breach of his human rights.

He said the refusal to provide him with the prescription medicines he identified to treat his conditions was in breach of his rights, and unlawful.

Lee pinpointed a section of the New Zealand Bill of Rights to support his argument around having the right “not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading or disproportionately severe treatment”.

He referred to another section which outlined that “everyone deprived of liberty shall have the right to be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the person”, as having been breached.

Lee supported his challenge with complaints that the way he was being treated compared with other inmates was “discriminatory and inconsistent”.

The law stated that a prisoner was entitled to receive medical treatment that was reasonably necessary, and the standard of healthcare available to prisoners must be reasonably equivalent to the standard of healthcare available to the public.

Lee also had a hearing impairment for which he used hearing aids. He pleaded that he was entitled to be supplied with batteries for the aids, free of charge.

Claim dismissed

The court has dismissed Lee’s application for a judicial review of decisions denying him what he wanted.

It found there had been no error in the decision not to provide the specific medications, or in Rolleston Prison’s policy regarding the provision of hearing aid batteries.

Justice Cameron Mander said it was not apparent that Lee had not been able to access appropriate medical services, or that his medical concerns had not been communicated and considered by appropriate professional staff.

Instead, it was more a case that he did not agree with a clinician’s medical opinion regarding the appropriateness of prescribing the drugs he sought.

In summary, Justice Mander also found that the arrangements regarding the provision of batteries for hearing aids reasonably equated to the standard of services available to the general public.

Sleepless in prison

Lee first presented with insomnia while in Corrections’ custody in August 2020.

The medical officer who saw him noted it was “situational” because it related to various sources of stress he was experiencing at that time.

He had chronic shoulder pain for which he was prescribed Amitriptyline, but it was ineffective and discontinued in December 2020.

Lee was told that chronic insomnia was not a problem fixed with medication and was referred to counselling to help manage his sleep difficulty, Justice Mander noted.

Lee was later prescribed mirtazapine after he showed signs and symptoms of depression.

He stopped taking the medication in late 2023, because it made him drowsy, and the matter of his chronic insomnia was again raised in February 2024.

He then requested melatonin, but it was not funded, so Lee funded his own until early July 2024, when a medical officer, at Lee’s request, restarted him on mirtazapine.

Rather than help, it appeared to cause more issues, a doctor noted.

Lee was then provided with information about cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia.

He then sent a letter to prison management, advising that he planned to file legal proceedings if he could not get what he wanted.

Rolleston’s health centre manager followed up with doctors but was told the same thing - that there was no medication in New Zealand indicated for chronic insomnia.

Justice Mander said the fact that Lee disagreed with the medical professionals did not provide a basis upon which the court could conclude there had been any failure or breach by Corrections to comply with its statutory duties to provide satisfactory medical treatment.

In response to Lee’s concerns he was being discriminated against, doctors also found that the inmates to whom Lee compared himself did not have the same conditions.

Justice Mander recognised there was variation between the different prison health centres concerning the provision of hearing aid batteries, but that was because each prison health centre was required to manage its own budget and had its own commercial arrangements with providers.

Corrections contributed up to $3000 for the purchase of hearing aids if the person was not covered by ACC, the court noted.

In the community, a person could access funding support via various organisations, including the Ministry of Health, but only up to $511 per hearing aid, or via ACC.

The MoH hearing aid support scheme did not extend to the funding of batteries.

At Rolleston, a pack of batteries was provided or sold to prisoners at a discounted rate.

Lee had been provided with hearing aid batteries but no payment arrangement had been made because of the impasse over whether he should contribute to their cost.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.