KEY POINTS:
Waist restraints for prisoners during transport are being rolled out nationwide from today, in a move designed to cut back on assaults and escapes.
The Department of Corrections started testing waist restraints last year, following criticism of transport security after the murder of 17-year-old Liam Ashley in August
2006.
Liam's killer, George Charlie Baker, strangled him and stomped on his head in a van taking them to Auckland Central Remand Prison at Mt Eden.
The death prompted a damning Ombudsmen's report into prisoner transport.
The department's chief custodial adviser Bryan McMurray said today the nationwide roll out had begun in the central region.
He said Corrections was committed to "safety, securely and humanely transporting prisoners".
Waist restraints reduced the ability of prisoners to assault each other by securing their arms to a belt around their waist.
"Waist restraints also protect the safety of the public by further reducing the possibility of escape," Mr McMurray said.
Prisoners would wear them in all prisoner escorts around the country unless there was a good reason not to.
Exclusions would be given to pregnant women, medically exempt prisoners or those travelling in a compartment on their own.
Mr McMurray said after a rigorous trial at three prisons the department had contracted with New Zealand manufacturer Black Scorpion to supply the restraints.
During the trial some minor faults were found but modifications had been made before the restraints were purchased.
The roll out would continue in the southern and northern regions on May 5 and 12.
A thorough review of the department's vehicle standards was also under way to see what other solutions were available to address the issue of prisoner assaults.
"Waist restraints have been implemented because they provide an immediate response to the threat of prisoners assaulting each other," Mr McMurray said.
Implementing the restraints, including necessary modifications to vehicles, had cost about $1 million.
To implement all recommendations in the Ombudsmen's report could cost up to $30 million, it was revealed last year.
Chief Ombudsman John Belgrave and fellow ombudsman Mel Smith found the majority of prisoner transport undertaken in New Zealand to be "inhumane".
Their report, released in June, recommended sweeping physical changes to the transportation of prisoners, as well as policy changes to improve consistency across the country's prisons and between police, corrections and its contractor.
The Government responded by saying it would implement all the recommendations.
It also said it would implement waist restraints, which were not recommended in the report.
- NZPA