4 Mar 2021

Prison guards threatened to pepper spray inmate shortly after she tried to take her own life

From Morning Report, 7:09 am on 4 March 2021

Warning: This article discusses suicide and could be distressing for some people.

Prison guards threatened to pepper spray an inmate and then went on to put her in a headlock minutes after she'd tried to take her own life, documents released to RNZ show.

Auckland Women's Prison inmate Mihi Bassett tried to kill herself in January last year, after Corrections unlawfully held her for months in a segregation unit, known as the pound.

After she was resuscitated she didn't want to leave her cell and in the resulting scuffle a guard drew pepper spray but didn't carry through with a threat to use it.

Instead Corrections officers put Bassett in a headlock, handcuffed her and moved her to an Intervention Support Unit where they cut off her clothes and underwear with a knife to get her into a prison gown.

Investigative Journalist Guyon Espiner has the story.