Prisons resume face-to-face visits but problems with minimum entitlements remain

Reweti Kohere

All 18 of New Zealand’s prisons have now resumed face-to-face contact between inmates and counsel while the Department of Corrections continues to “recruit, retain and train” to deal with staffing shortages.

But criminal law barristers are criticising the department for “aspiring” to meet minimum entitlements under the Corrections Act 2004, saying these entitlements are not aspirational targets.

From this week, all prisons have resumed face-to-face legal visits, Corrections said in a recent update sent to the judiciary, legal profession and justice sector partners and agencies.

All but one prison since 2022 has allowed in-person legal visits to proceed, with Upper Hutt’s Rimutaka prison, one of the country’s largest prisons, resuming them only this week.

Lawyers’ preferred dates and times couldn’t be guaranteed, however, as Rimutaka continued to face significant staffing challenges. “Initially, there will be limited availability for faceto-face legal visits as Rimutaka Prison builds up its capacity to facilitate them,” Corrections said. “AVL and phone calls will remain available as means to contact clients.”

In-person legal visits were paused at Rimutaka at the end of last September because the prison had to manage an increase in inmates from other sites struggling with greater staffing pressures, Corrections national commissioner Leigh Marsh said.

It was reported at the time that 75 prisoners were set to move to Rimutaka from Mt Eden Corrections Facility and

Spring Hill in the Waikato.

Corrections took its responsibility to support the legal process “extremely seriously” and ensured alternative means of communication were in place, including increasing the availability of AVL devices capable of facilitating virtual visits. Marsh said there was no time limit for scheduled contact; lawyers were able to determine how much time they needed and, within reason, Rimutaka prison would facilitate it.

“While we know these measures don’t replace the benefit that can come from face-to-face visits, again, we had to keep the prison operating safely and securely,” he said.

With the resumption of face-to-face visits, counsel can contact Rimutaka prison directly, rather than through a centralised prison contact team established to coordinate all legal visits during the covid-19 pandemic.

Whānau visits

Face-to-face contact has also resumed for whānau, with 15 prisons facilitating such visits, and most having allowed them since last year.

Whānau visits have resumed in some of Auckland Prison’s units, with virtual visits available for other units. Known as Paremoremo, the prison is permitting family to visit unit six on Monday mornings and unit eight on Thursdays in the early

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Face-to-face visits haven’t resumed yet at Spring Hill, Rimutaka and Mt Eden, Corrections said in its update.

Marsh acknowledged the difficulty for whānau in not being able “to always see their loved ones in person in prison”. Staff were working hard to resume visits and activities as soon as possible, while maintaining safety.

Criticisms

While the resumption of visits was a great start, criminal barrister Emma Priest said minimum entitlements weren’t “aspirational” targets for Corrections to meet.

Section 69 of the Corrections Act 2004 permits prisoners a raft of minimum entitlements, such as physical exercise for at least one hour a day, receiving at least one private visitor each week for a minimum of 30 minutes and having their lawyer visit to discuss their legal affairs.

Minimum entitlements aren’t absolute though: prisoners may be denied them, “for a period of time that is reasonable in the circumstances”, if there’s an emergency, prison security is threatened or any person’s health or safety is put at risk.

The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (also known as the Nelson Mandela rules) mandate all prisoners have at least one hour of outdoor exercise each day.

Concern for the welfare of inmates has surfaced as recently as January, with Stuff reporting some prisoners at Paremoremo were being locked in their cells for up to three days at a time, in breach of their human rights.

In August 2022, Stuff also reported Rimutaka inmates in two units were being locked in their cells for more than 22 hours some days due to Corrections staff shortages.

In an Official Information Act response specifically focused on two maximum security units at Auckland prison, which LawNews has seen, Corrections confirmed the minimum entitlement to receiving private visitors had been denied to inmates since August 2021 on the ground that people’s health or safety was threatened.

Corrections also revealed inmates from the same two units were, between August 2022 and January 2023, denied their entitlement to physical exercise,

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