Manager Business Continuity and Emergency
Management Hans Brounts gives the Senior Management
Team a demonstration of personal protective gear.
NEW ZEALAND is at the beginning of an avian influenza pandemic. The pandemic has a twenty to thirty percent infection rate across all age groups. Five percent of those who contract the infection will die.
Corrections is faced with large numbers of sick staff and prisoners. Half our staff have not reported for work. Our external providers are faced with a similar situation and the services they provide us are impacted.
This is one of the situations Corrections staff faced as part of the all-of-government pandemic exercise in May.
The five-day exercise, led by the Ministry of Health, tested the plans of dozens of agencies, including Corrections, and involved thousands of participants at national, regional and local levels. The exercise focused on four stages – Keep It Out, Stamp It Out, Manage It, and Recover.
Over the last two years, Corrections has been actively developing plans and arrangements for a pandemic. The exercise enabled us to test our Head Office Executive Incident Management Team and our three National Emergency Response Teams – from Prison Services, Corrections Inmate Employment, and Community Probation and Psychological Services.
Staff at two prison sites (Wellington Prison and Auckland Region Women’s Corrections Facility) and all 140 Community Probation offices nationwide tested their pandemic response plans. They addressed challenges such as providing support to staff who became ill and providing treatment for infected prisoners with a reduced workforce.
Other Corrections sites, such as Northland Region Corrections Facility and Hawkes Bay Prison, exercised informally with their local District Health Boards.
Manager Business Continuity and Emergency Management Hans Brounts says that like most agencies, Corrections will cede non-essential activities during a pandemic, while ensuring staff and offender welfare.
“Non-critical staff will be sent home or asked to work remotely, and front-line staff will focus on critical functions identified in their planning, such as feeding prisoners and keeping prisons secure.
“The Department has purchased personal protection equipment for staff to use during a pandemic. We also have access to anti-viral medication from the national reserve for staff who can’t avoid contact with other people.”
Chief Executive Barry Matthews says emergencies do happen, so exercises are important.
“A real pandemic will impact on everyone – the public, Corrections staff, offenders and their families. It will severely test our ability to maintain critical functions and the ability of our external suppliers to support us.
“I’m confident that despite the challenges we would manage well in the event of a pandemic. I’m impressed with the way we performed in the exercise, and while we know that some work remains to improve our plans, we’re committed to making those improvements.”
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ISSN 1178-8453