Auckland Region Women’s Corrections Facility (ARWCF) opened in 2006 and is one of three female prisons in New Zealand.
The prison is New Zealand’s first purpose-built women’s prison and was constructed to accommodate a growing number of female prisoners. It services the upper North Island.
New Zealand’s two other women’s prisons are Arohata Prison in Wellington (which services the lower North Island) and Christchurch Women’s Prison in the South Island.
ARWCF can accommodate 286 prisoners with security classifications ranging from minimum to high-medium. Remand prisoners are also accommodated at the prison.
This site is deliberately designed quite differently from traditional prisons.
In basic terms, it is a big, secure enclosure with a range of separate units set in a large open space within a perimeter fence. Accommodation units are clustered around centrally located services such as kitchens, industry areas and programme rooms.
The entire facility is enclosed by a highly secure perimeter fence with single controlled point of entry. The secure perimeter allows a more open internal prison environment, where prisoners can move through a planned day. This protects the public and staff, reduces stress and prisoner management issues and provides a more effective environment for treatment, training and work programmes.
ARWCF provides a range of specialised rehabilitation and reintegration programmes, and includes a specialised baby bonding unit. Mothers who have babies aged under six months being cared for in the community are permitted daily visits in secure, purpose-built facilities where they can bond with their child. These facilities replicate a domestic lounge setting with a bathroom, kitchenette and sleeping room for the baby. Feeding and bonding facilities allow a mother to spend up to 12 hours a day with her baby. This arrangement also allows the baby to bond with the caregiver raising the child while the mother serves her sentence.
ARWCF also has eight Self-Care Units where longer-serving prisoners may be eligible to spend time as they near release. These are residential-style units inside the prison that let prisoners get used to living in a flatting type environment and give prisoners an opportunity to learn and practice the skills they need to live independently after release. Some prisoners with babies (up to six months) may be eligible to live in Self Care Units with their child.
ARWCF has a partnership with the Mobility Assistance Dogs Trust. The trust trains and provides mobility dogs to assist people with physical disabilities. Through this partnership, selected minimum security prisoners in the Self Care Units look after a small number of puppies and carry out basic training. More advanced training for the puppies is undertaken by trainers from the Trust.
