Prison guards and staff now face more and more violent incidents and riots, with prisoners more concentrated, their union says a day after a riot at Waikato's Spring Hill facility. Photo: Corrections / Chai Patel
Violence and riots in prisons are now increasingly common as a result of higher prison populations, a group representing Corrections staff says, a day after a riot and fires at a Waikato prison.
However, the Correction Minister says, while the prison population is increasing, putting pressure on staff and facilities, major incidents have not increased, and more funding, staff and beds are coming.
On Saturday afternoon a group of prisoners refused to leave an exercise yard at Spring Hill Corrections Facility south of Meremere, damaging property and lighting fires, resulting in the prison going into lockdown. Firefighters and ambulance crews were sent to the facility and a specialist Advanced Control and Restraint team was dispatched.
President of the Corrections Association, the union for Corrections workers, Floyd du Plessis told RNZ their staff were facing more and more violent incidents, and outdated staffing levels were compounding the problem.
"It's a very dangerous situation. Anytime when you've got a number of prisoners threatening harm, reports of potential weapons, it's definitely a dangerous situation for staff, and it's only through the training and fast thinking of staff that [they are] able to bring it to a close relatively quickly and safely."
The events on Saturday had been isolated to the yard and contained by staff, he said: "There was no risk of it spreading further in the way that the staff managed to deal with it and bring it to a close."
Riots were not uncommon in New Zealand prisons, du Plessis said, and they were increasing.
"We have events like this that happen on a regular basis across the country. There's just some of them that tend to become public knowledge and shared wider. But it's actually more common than people realise.
"Spring Hill itself is one of those prisons that do hold quite a number of high profile prisoners, volatile prisoners. And so you do have these incidents that do tend to come at that higher level.
"The reality is these situations are getting more common, they are becoming more violent, and the reality is it's something that we do need to urgently address."
The association had been campaigning for improved security measures to help shut down disorder quicker and more safely, he said.
"We have been lobbying for that. We need better safety equipment. And that's something that we are going to continue to push.
"The other factor is we need more staff. Our prisons are staffed based on a ratio that was developed many, many years ago ... [the] problem is prisons have become far more violent than they used to be. And so those calculations just aren't fit for purpose.
"So in places like Spring Hill, for high security prisoners, you're talking about two staff managing up to 30 prisoners. That's just not safe. These are the most violent people in our country and we expect two staff to manage them without incident. That's just not realistic.
"We need to re-look at it and we need more staff in the prisons and we need to give them tools to safely operate."
Du Plessis said more prisoners were being packed into the same spaces, there were not enough beds to manage the situation and staffing levels were too low.
"What we're doing then is we're condensing more and more of these people into tight spots. We have a serious problem with available beds. So across the country, we're jam packing everyone in as tightly as we can.
"And what that means is it ... doesn't give us room to move people around or to manage the people better. And so unfortunately that does create tension, which leads to violence. We urgently need more beds across the country and staff to staff them."
Staff also want access to other safety measures, du Plessis said, such as PepperBall ranged weapons which are promoted as non-lethal.
"That's something that we can use at a distance that can quickly bring these things to a close. But we need the government to work with us to change legislation and put them in place."
Corrections' custodial services commissioner Leigh Marsh earlier praised the agency's staff, who contained the Spring Hill incident, without any injury to staff or prisoners.
On Sunday, Marsh told RNZ that, while the event was taken extremely seriously and all precautions were taken, it had been fairly minor.
The 11 inmates involved were confined to the concreted exercise yard, when some became aggressive towards staff, as they were being let out of their cells, he said. Four small fires were lit in the concreted yard using bits of paper, which blew away in the wind.
The prisoners eventually surrendered.
"As is a typical response to these events, the whole prison was locked down immediately to free up as much staff as possible to respond. It was all calm yesterday afternoon [Saturday] and this morning's gone really well."
Corrections and police were reviewing the incident, he said.
Minister responds to union concerns
Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell also praised the work of Corrections staff who responded on Saturday. He acknowledged prison populations had increased, but said the number of major incidents in New Zealand prisons had not increased:
"There is no evidence of - and Corrections confirm they haven't seen - an increase of major incidents of disruption.
"Corrections staff manage New Zealand's most dangerous people, many of whom are capable of gratuitous and spontaneous violence. Many are in prison for this reason, and are also gang members or associated with gangs.
"This creates complex and dynamic environment for Corrections to manage, and prisoners will sometimes go to extreme lengths to cause disruption and damage.
"Corrections have been very clear that there is zero tolerance for this behaviour, and they will take swift and direct action to deal with it."
He also acknowledged that more prisoners created more pressure on staff and facilities.
"This Government's focus on public safety has seen an increase in prisoners. We know this puts pressure on beds and staff, which is why Budget 2025 invested more than $472 million over four years to ensure Corrections can continue to safely and securely manage the growing prison population.
Over four years, funds earmarked in Budget 2025 would provide 580 new frontline staff, including 368 Corrections officers - in addition to 685 new frontline staff, funded through Budget 2024, he said. Waikato's Waikeria Prison would expand by 810 beds, and Christchurch Men's Prison by another 240 high security beds, a health centre and intervention unit with another 52 beds.
Mitchell said Corrections was quick to ensure the environment remained as safe as possible for staff, including providing high-quality training, stab-resistant body armour, body-worn cameras and pepper spray.
The agency would continue to work with unions, including on tactical equipment and their combined work on Safer Prisons Plans, which were introduced last October.
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