In common with most jurisdictions, PPS has as an array of Policies and Procedures, subject to continual change and development, designed to ensure safe, secure, humane containment. I will spend relatively little time here, other than to highlight current areas of focus.
Safety
Key current priorities are in the areas of:
- At-Risk Management
All inmates are screened on initial reception, after transfer or in other specified circumstances, to identify any who may be at risk of self-harm or suicide. The process requires:
- An initial screening tool that indicates anyone who potentially may be at risk. This provides a very low threshold.
- Placement, often in recently constructed at-risk units or safe-cells, under close observation until further consultation with health staff confirms the inmate is not at risk.
- The development of individual management plans for inmates designated at-risk
- Segregation processes, designed to limit the association with other inmates of offenders involved in violent, intimidating, or criminal activities within the prison environment
- Utilisation of and ongoing training in “Control and Restraint” systems, based on those used in the prison service of England and Wales
- Current re-development of processes and training to provide a holistic capability in each region to respond to serious prison incidents including civil emergencies and group disturbances.
Security
Historically, New Zealand has placed less emphasis than comparable jurisdictions on some aspects of security management. We have been highly rated in respect of our dynamic security ; the level and quality of interaction between Corrections Officers and inmates. This tends both to defuse tension, and to provide avenues of communication that can assist in providing early warning of brewing trouble. However, we have placed emphasis in recent years also on the following areas:
- Deterrence and detection strategies to reduce illicit drug use by prison inmates. This has included the introduction of random drug testing and associated management regimes, and expansion of the number of drug detection dog teams.
- An increasing emphasis on perimeter security and a move to single entry points - though some of our facilities are geographically large: one has a perimeter of 160km and is alongside a state highway!
- Reviews of our security classification system to ensure appropriate assessment of security levels. Less than 1% of our current population is classified as Maximum security, High-Medium (including remands and unclassified) make up 30%, Low-Medium 29%, and 40% are Minimum security.
Humane Containment
Recent developments in the area of humane containment include:
- Initiatives to allow infants to remain with their mothers in prison under certain circumstances and, generally, to a maximum of six months. Such inmates are accommodated in the two self-care units attached to women’s facilities. Changes, including some to facilities, have also been made to improve daily access of infants for feeding and bonding purposes where the child does not live in.
- Significant initiatives in the health area, including:
- The piloting and imminent introduction of harm minimisation and communicable diseases screening
- The development and resourcing of objective health delivery standards based on those applying in the wider health sector
- Introduction of national Health IT System in all prisons.
- A project to develop a new mental health-screening tool.
- Development of national standards governing all aspects of prison construction, including cell construction. With limited exceptions, New Zealand has a policy of one inmate per cell.
- The introduction of improved inmate visiting arrangements, incorporating utilisation of our offender management software to vet visitors and book visits. We have recently surveyed prison visitors for the second time and have noted an increase in approval ratings.
- We are implementing a volunteer’s database and introducing processes to provide more consistent means of reimbursing volunteers for costs incurred. This is part of a strategy to increase the amount and quality of inmate constructive activity.
- Ongoing support for inmate access to the arts and spiritual/religious support.
Active management
Active management is defined as the interaction between staff and inmates in which every contact is viewed as an opportunity for positive influence. It was introduced in recognition of the valuable role prison staff play in managing inmates and influencing their engagement in criminogenic programmes. In essence it is a key tool to assist prison staff to effectively manage inmates and integrate sentence management and safe, secure and humane containment.
The four components of active management are:
- Knowledge - information of and awareness about the principles of sentence management, inmates within their sphere of influence and specific sentence plan objectives
- Communication - the active sharing of information, observations and impressions with each other on a regular and ongoing basis
- Responsiveness – a general readiness to respond to an inmate’s emergent issues and difficulties
- Exerting influence – effectively motivating inmates to address their offending.
