Squash on police and court cells

More than 200 prisoners are languishing in police and court cells - and the problem could get worse before it gets better, says the Corrections Department.

Public Prisons general manager Phil McCarthy said yesterday that as of Monday, 129 inmates were being held in police cells and another 86 in court cells.

The overcrowding problem surfaced last year when it became clear that previous Justice Ministry projections of the number of prison beds needed were about 900 short.

By the end of last year the problem seemed to have eased, but yesterday Mr McCarthy said the number of inmates in police and court cells was growing again.

"It's been growing. It fluctuates from day to day, depending on the overall muster, but there's been an overall upward trend in the past six or seven weeks," he told Parliament's law and order select committee.

The department expected numbers to stay at the 130-160 mark until September or October when the construction of new prison beds meant the pressure would ease.

But under questioning from National MP Tony Ryall, Mr McCarthy conceded the number of inmates in police cells could go much higher.

He said the department had an arrangement with police to use up to 175 cells, and one with courts to use up to 86.

The courts' quota was already full and although it might get close to filling its quota with police, the department was confident it would not exceed it.

Corrections Minister Paul Swain told the committee high inmate numbers were due to a toughening of bail, sentencing and parole laws and higher crime resolution rates.

He said pressure would ease as new prison beds became available at Ngawha Prison in Northland, and through new construction at existing prisons.

Ngawha Prison could cater for 372 inmates at present, but that would grow through the year. New construction at existing prisons would mean 500 new beds in the next two years.

Capacity would be further improved when Auckland Women's Prison and Otago Prison were completed next year and Waikato's Springhill Prison in 2007.

Combined, those projects would yield 2100 new beds by the end of 2007, Mr Swain said.

The Government's long-term goal was to reduce the number of inmates reoffending upon release, he said.

At present 25 per cent of inmates reoffended in their first year out.

On the issue of phones in prisons, Mr Swain said that in the next year the department would start monitoring inmates' calls from landline phones to prevent them from organising crime behind bars. The calls would be monitored on a random basis.

The department was also approaching telecommunications companies to seek their approval for the use of jamming technology in prisons to block inmates from using mobile phones.

Under current law it could not do this without the companies' approval.

- NZPA