Legal visits

Last updated: 24 Aug 2023

Face-to-face legal visits to people in prison are available at all prisons.

Arranging a legal visit

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we established the Prisoner Contact team to coordinate all bookings for legal counsel wishing to visit clients in prison. We are now in the process of returning this function back to individual prisons. Please check back regularly, as we will be transitioning additional prisons back to managing their own bookings in the coming weeks and months.

The prisons listed below should be contacted directly to arrange face to face or AVL legal visits:

Prisoner Contact Team

At all other prisons, counsel should continue to contact the centralised Prisoner Contact team directly by emailing prisonercontact@corrections.govt.nz. These prisons are:

• Mt Eden Corrections Facility
• Auckland Region Women’s Corrections Facility
• Spring Hill Corrections Facility
• Waikeria Prison
• Tongariro Prison
• Arohata Prison

In addition to face-to-face visits, prisons may also continue to utilise AVL and phone calls to facilitate legal visits as appropriate.

Please note that we continue to face significant staffing challenges and we will do our very best to accommodate preferences for dates and times, but we may not always be able to do this.

Information required

Please provide the prison or the Prisoner Contact team with as much information as possible. Please include all of the following:

• The reasons an in-person visit is required
• The prisoner’s name, PRN, and prison site
• The proposed dates for visits and the length of time the lawyer believes they will require for the visit.

If you are arranging a visit via the Prisoner Contact team, the team will then contact the relevant prison visitor booking area and arrange for the booking to occur. Best efforts will be made to accommodate time and date preferences; however, this may not always be possible. Once the booking is made, this will be provided in writing, via email, to counsel from the Prisoner Contact team.

If declined, the Prisoner Contact team will assist counsel in making a remote booking where possible.

Cancellations

Should counsel no longer require the booking, they should advise the site or the Prisoner Contact team as soon as practicable. There may be instances when the prison is no longer able to accommodate the original booking. This may relate to changes in COVID-19 protocols, safety requirements, or overall prison operational requirements.

In these instances, the prison or the Prisoner Contact team will contact counsel to advise and assist to make a further booking for remote access if required, or in-person at a later date.

Contact details

The Prisoner Contact team can be contacted by:

Email:   prisonercontact@corrections.govt.nz