Ombudsman warns that New Zealand prison have not adjusted their approach since the COVID-19 lockdowns

Corrections staff have recently come under fire for their faculty's poor conditions and culture. Corrections has responded that whilst the department is “not out of the woods”, it maintains that change is happening despite the appalling four reports about nine prisons the Ombudsman presented.
 
Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier appeared before members of Parliament at a select committee on 11 April 2024, presenting four reports about nine prisons. He said there was an unacceptable culture of containment in many. In front of the Justice Committee, Boshier said he would “leave the job disappointed” if he “hasn’t made any impact on the Department of Corrections that he could be proud of”. Considering that many of these concerns had been raised before in the previous Ombudsmen reports, this was incredibly disappointing as agencies tend to implement such changes due to those reports, but this is not the case with Corrections. 
 
Even though it has been almost three years since the last COVID-19 lockdowns, today's conditions closely resemble the situations of no visits, meaningful human contact, or rehabilitation continuing since the pandemic response. Boshier describes the Corrections approach as “glacial” and says that for too long, the department has blamed staff shortages when, in fact, there is now a culture embedded – “that a lot of things will be done in minimal fashion”. He suggests that whilst Corrections claims these practices are a product of poor staffing, he thinks these modes of operation suit the staff and adhere to this dismissive culture. Whilst the precarious lockdown period may have justified such restrictions for a shorter period, there is no reason for this restrictive regime of lock-ups and non-visits to continue into 2024. Across the country, the report found that proper visitation rights of friends or family have not been re-introduced.
 
As part of his reports, he found that some prisoners were being held in segregation for over a year and were isolated from others for 23 or 24 hours a day. He further explains that this type of separation, in which you do not talk to anyone, takes an extremely harmful toll on one’s mental health. The newly built maximum security Auckland Prison is highlighted as being particularly problematic. Boshier explains that daily practices between inmates have become a lot more transactional. For example, prisoners no longer have much opportunity to interact with each other as they move between areas, and their meals are simply handed over to them without the opportunity for conversation. It is described as a way of managing and containing prisoners, like a “people storage unit”. Without meaningful human contact and rehabilitation programmes, the justice system is not living up to the reasonable standards of care for prisons and pushing the boundaries of breaching international expectations and prisoners’ rights.
 
Boshier says that the way to change an organisation is through good and concentrated leadership. People involved in Corrections need to want to achieve change within the institution. It was not all bad news, however. One of the Ombudsman reports focused on Tongariro Prison, a minimum-security prison that Boshier said was operating well and should serve as an example for other prisons. “It’s doing the things you’d want it to do”, Boshier describes – it has a high Māori inmate population, and they are doing good things with iwi and good stuff with culture. The leadership at Corrections could do much more to promote this culture, which is needed to achieve a positive change, Boshier says.
 
Deputy Commissioner of Prisons Neil Beales responded, saying he “respectfully disagrees” with Boshier’s comments.