Previous Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier and the Office of the Inspectorate had issued reports, highlighting concerns human rights were being breached through the prolonged use of solitary confinement at several prisons, including Auckland Prison.<\/p>\n
The ombudsman and the Office of the Inspectorate regularly visit and inspect prisons, but delegation head Aisha Shujune Muhammad told RNZ the ombudsman\u2019s report was not the reason for the visit, which intermittently take place in countries signed up to the optional protocol to the Convention Against Torture.<\/p>\n
The experts often also make unannounced visits to police stations, youth detention facilities and old-age care homes, and meet government officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the person is detained, there is every likelihood that there may be torture or ill-treatment, which is why our prevention work is so focused on ensuring that the systems and mechanisms are in place, the safeguards are in place, so that torture or ill-treatment may be avoided,\u201d Muhammad said.<\/p>\n
She said the committee was focused on preventing torture and did not investigate claims by individuals, looking at legal safeguards in place, how complaint mechanisms worked and the use of restraints.<\/p>\n
Once they visit a country, they prepare a report that is passed to the government, which then decides whether to make it public.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the very basic elements of torture prevention is to ensure that there are independent visiting bodies, visiting these places of deprivation of liberty, because these institutions or places are not places that are accessible to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said torture could occur in state institutions in any country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe development of a country has often-times no correlation with whether people in detention may have the safeguards necessary in place and the systems necessary in place for the prevention of torture and ill-treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victoria University criminology lecturer Dr Liam Martin said independent prison inspections were \u201cessential\u201d, when trying to get a clear picture of current prison conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrison conditions in New Zealand are generally a black box,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to know what\u2019s going on in there, if it\u2019s not you or your family members being incarcerated.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said journalists could not often interview prisoners and there was a shortage of independent university research into prison conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s all kinds of ways the gate-keeping happens,\u201d Martin said. \u201cThese inspections, where people have a statutory right to get in there and release information publicly, are utterly essential.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin said the visits were even more important, with the number of prisoners expected to rise over the next decade – the Ministry of Justice projects the population will increase by 36%.<\/p>\n
In 2023, the United Nations Committee Against Torture published a report into New Zealand prisons, saying it was concerned about the over-representation of M\u0101ori in the justice system, as well as issues with staff shortages, overcrowding and prolonged use of solitary confinement.<\/p>\n
Subsequent reports, including from the ombudsman, were issued in 2024, calling attention to human rights breaches through the prolonged use of solitary confinement in Auckland Prison.<\/p>\n
Last month, the Office of the Inspectorate issued a report about Mt Eden facility, with chief inspector Janis Adair saying most prisoners were being subject to restrictive regimes, spending about 22 hours a day locked in their cells.<\/p>\n
Martin said recent reports he had read,highlighted systemic issues with how much time prisoners spent in their cells and how tightly movements were controlled.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder the Corrections Act and the UN\u2019s minimum standards, such as the Mandela Rules, prisoners have to have an hour out of their cells every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are trying to think about what a prison is and what it\u2019s like to be in there, it\u2019s in that cell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Corrections Association president Floyd Du Plessis said he wanted to talk with the UN subcommittee and the Ombudsman about what wasn\u2019t working and how change could be achieved.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe challenge those groups, if you want to make actual change, then sit down with us and let\u2019s work through what could be done.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018We\u2019ve made significant changes\u2019<\/p>\n
Corrections commissioner for custodial services Leigh Marsh said the department regularly facilitated unannounced visits to its prisons, including from the Ombudsman, and it valued \u201cindependent scrutiny\u201d of facilities and operations.<\/p>\n
He said significant changes had been made in response to independent reviews and as part of proactive work, including strategies on mental health and the over-representation of M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n
Marsh said more beds were coming for Christchurch Men\u2019s Prison and Waikeria Prison, which recently opened 500 new beds in June, and 96 in the mental health and addiction units.<\/p>\n
He said, since the UN Convention Against Torture\u2019s 2023 report, Corrections had boosted staffing, with 923 additional frontline staff, including 824 corrections officers.<\/p>\n
Marsh said the Government was committing $78 million to extend rehabilitation programmes to include prisoners on remand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are committed to ensuring people in prison are treated safely and humanely, with robust processes in place,\u201d he said. \u201cThere has been continuously ongoing work to further improve these processes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe safety of prisoners, our staff and the public is our top priority.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Previous Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier and the Office of the Inspectorate had issued reports, highlighting concerns human rights…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,10709,39994,22191,5658,39991,117,111,43,139,69,39995,39992,39993,25275,80],"class_list":["post-45350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-concerns","tag-confinement","tag-ellen","tag-experts","tag-inspect","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-odwyer","tag-prisons","tag-solitary","tag-un","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}