December 16, 2025 • 15 mins
The Corrections Association says New Zealand’s prisons are in ‘crisis’.
Last year saw record-breaking numbers of assaults on staff, almost double what they were just seven years ago.
There were also more than 15-hundred prisoner-on-prisoner attacks - the highest annual figure on record.
All of this comes with overcrowding, tight budgets, and a growing gang and meth problem.
Today on The Front Page, NZ Herald senior reporter, Derek Cheng, is with us to dive into the numbers.
Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.
Host: Chelsea Daniels
Editor/Producer: Richard Martin
Producer: Jane Yee
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Kyota at Chelsea Daniels here, host of the Front Page.
We're taking away breakover summer, but to help build the gap,
we're re issuing some of our most significant episodes of
twenty twenty five on behalf of the Front Page team.
Thanks for listening and we look forward to being back
with you on January twelfth, twenty twenty six. Kiyota, I'm
(00:44):
Chelsea Daniels, and this is the Front Page, a daily
podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. The Corrections Association
says New Zealand's prisons are in crisis. Last year saw
record breaking numbers of assaults on staff, almost double what
(01:06):
they were just seven years ago. There were also more
than fifteen hundred prisoner on prisoner attacks, the highest annual
figure on record. All of this comes with overcrowding, tight
budgets and a growing gang and meth problem. Today on
the Front Page ends at Herald, Senior reporter Derek Chang
(01:26):
is with us to dive into the numbers. So, Derek,
when you began looking into Correction's latest prison assault data,
what stood out to you?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Well, the figures are the highest on record, and obviously
the prison population fluctuates and the number of prison offices fluctuates.
At the moment, the prison population is an all time high.
It's just under teny nine hundred, and the last time
it was more or less the same population number was
(02:02):
back in March twenty eighteen. So it's interesting to compare
the numbers. So I mean corrections keeps the starter. It's
prisoner on prisoner assaults and prisoner on staff assaults. So
in the last year, which is twenty four twenty five,
were almost sixteen hundred prisoner prisoner assaults, and there were
(02:23):
almost eleven hundred prisoner staff assaults. And if you compare
that to the twenty seven eighteen year, which was when
the prison population was almost just as high, there are
almost twice as many prisoner staff assaults now or in
the latest year than then. And there's I think it's
a twenty eight percent increase in the number of prisoner
(02:46):
prisoner assaults.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Is this surge mainly about more violence or more reporting
of small incidents? Do you think?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Well, if you break the numbers down, the corrections data
is based on serious assault, non serious assault, and no
injury assault. So serious assault essentially is something that requires
a visit to the hospital, or is there to a
police charge, so the bar is reasonably high. And then
(03:16):
you have a non serious assault, which is which is
an injury, which which hasn't led to a hospital visit
or a police charge. And then you have a no
injury assault like you know, a shove or I throw
something at you or something like that, something small that
doesn't result an injury. So the numbers are actually quite
stable with serious assaults, and in fact they went down
(03:40):
slightly in the last year compared to the previous year.
The majority of the increase is definitely from non serious
and no injury assaults, and correction is also provided like
a breakdown per prison, so it's interesting to look at
each prison, although I mean, there are so many factors
involved in what happens and how an assault comes to
be and whether it's recorded in all those things. Corrections
(04:00):
has also said that there's definitely been a bigger focus
on reporting and that may explain some of the increase
in the numbers.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
You mentioned. The rising prison population is becoming more complex
with higher proportions of remand prisoners. You've got gang affiliated
in mates and math uses as well. How central is
this complexity, this cocktail to the rise of assaults.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Well, Corrections definitely thinks that the complexity of the prison
population has led to increasing chances of violence. People who
have a history of heavy matthews who then go to
prison are more likely to be involved in violence. There's
I think Corrections themselves referred to it as kind of
(04:49):
like pack beatings that happen in prison, and they tend
to be gang related. So if there are more gang
members in prisons, then there tend to be those kinds
of assaults. Just looking at the data as well, there's
more Category three sentences coming through the courts, and they
are the more serious offenses, punishable by at least two
years in prison. There is definitely a truth about the
(05:12):
complexity of the average prisoner, and I guess that would
mean that your average prisoner is more likely to end
up in these assult figures.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
It doesn't really surprise us, though, does it, that prisoner
numbers have gone up because nationals, how tough on crime,
stants actually promised more people in prisons.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
That's right, And there's a number of policies there. There's
the center single forms, there's a return of three strikes,
there's the ending of the section twenty seven reports for
state funding. All of these are projected to mean a
prison population that's three thousand higher in ten years time
than without those policies. Money for corrections is based on
(06:00):
these forecasts, right, So in this year's budget, the government
set aside a certain amount of money for corrections to manage,
and it's based on a forecast. The forecast was for
I think hundred and sixty by June next year. The
(06:22):
forecast back then, I mean was basically way out. Because
we're currently at tand one hundred and sixty, nine months
ahead of schedule, and that basically means that as the
prison population grows, which it's expected to, then the corrections
budget per prisoner is shrinking unless they ask for more money,
(06:43):
which they haven't. So corrections is just managing with the
baseline and it's just increasingly harder as the prison population grows,
the complexity of the prisoners coming in grows. They were
basically in a bit of a staffing crisis a few
years ago because the prison population was shooting up since
the start of twenty twenty two, and then they're just
(07:05):
playing catch up with frontline staff. That made a big
recruitment drive last year and they've halved the attrition rate,
which is staff turnover rate, so they're actually at a
better position than they have been, but there are still
two hundred and seventy seven officers corrections officers short of
where they want to be. And Creations describes this, and
(07:25):
there's a beautiful managerial phrase, suboptimal custodial frontline resilience, which
basically means that not operating with the ideal level of
staff and that really puts the staff under pressure. I
should also add that that this is nothing new for Corrections,
Like the forecast that was based for the prisoner forecast
(07:45):
that was used on the basis for funding for budget
twenty twenty four was also way below the numbers that
it rigally came out. So they've been doing this for
a while. And how long they can do it for
is anyone's guess, but it's certainly it's certainly suboptimal. In
Correction's own.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
To him, well, they're constantly playing catch up pay and
I'm never calling anything bad again. I'm going to be
calling it suboptimal from now on.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
The best we've ever been in the last eight years
in terms of staff. We're in the best position we
have been in eight years. It's not subpoptible at all.
It's not the Christians saying that they're suboptimal there saying
that Christians are the best place of the being. Like
I said, for eight years, there's an incoming government. They
(08:42):
started a new recruiting campaign that's been extremely successful. We've
got a massive popeline of people wanting to join and
become Creach suss as. We've got to other sevinty officers
been trained and ready to deployed at the moment.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
You also bring up double bunking, which has become an
issue and it's even been linked to a prisoner killing
his cell mate. Do I experts see double bunking as
an unavoidable necessity or a policy failure that's fueling that violence.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Well, it probably depends on who you ask. I remember
double bunking was brought in I think in twenty ten
or twenty eleven under the previous National government. I was
actually part of a cohorter journalists that were taken to
Ramattaka prison to sample the double bunking and you know,
the sales were barely roomy. They were really comfortable also,
(09:33):
you know, more centuring and with among them old members,
so it wasn't particularly dangerous, but double bunking has been
quite controversial. It's been increasingly used. I should say that
there's no current sort of capacity crisis because there's a
there was a recent addition to II carrier, so now
the current capacity is over twelve thousand, but forty five
(09:56):
percent of the prison population is now double bunked, so
that's basically five thousand prisoners. It's a lot, right, And
if we didn't have dumble bunking, then we wouldn't have capacity.
So it is a necessity. Prisoners are screen before they
put in a double bunk, but obviously that's not for
proof and as the Correction of the Association President Vluidipacy
(10:18):
was saying earlier this week, that creates violence, that creates tensions.
We've got some optimal sub optimal staffing. So again not
not not great. Assaults are going up and you know
there's no sort of there's no sort of reprieve coming.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
You know, Mitchell said about frontline staffing levels.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
He says things are going great, and obviously it's a
political perspective, but it's not entirely untrue because there was
much more of a staffing crisis a few years ago,
and they are in a much better position, but obviously
they would like to have more, hundreds more in fact,
and you know, kind of both perspectives are correct. Things
(11:08):
are better than they used to be, but they're still
at such a level where it creates more risk for
the staff and the staff for you know, you got
to feel for them because they can only have the
numbers that Corrections provides, which is based on government budgets.
(11:28):
But they are on the front line. They deal with
all of the complexities of that happen behind bars. And
that's saying that there are so few staff now that
there's a whole bunch of vacant shifts that aren't being filled.
Correction says that, you know, that's not because there's not
enough staff. It's because often for a sick leave or
(11:51):
some unforseeeable leave, and then the decision is made not
to bring more people in because it can be the
prison can be safely managed as it is. But the
union says, you know, it puts us more in danger,
it was there more in danger. It creates more tension
in the behind bars, and you know those and the
risks are heightened.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I mean, the union says and has told you that
it's already a crisis, but the Minister says it isn't.
Who do you reckon is closer to the truth.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Well, I mean they have different perspectives, right, I mean
the Corrections Association they represent the front line staff. They
don't want to see their front line staff and danger.
Obviously there's going to be some danger because it's just
the inherent nature of the job. They want to avoid
that as much as possible. Part of that is having
proper levels. Part is that that is minimizing the vacon shifts.
(12:47):
And the Minister, he backs the staff and he backs Corrections,
but he's also kind of hamstrung because you know it's
the finance minister who decides how much money they get.
Corrections just deals with the back end of the justice pipeline.
You know how many people go there isn't up to corrections.
(13:08):
They just have to manage it. It's all about crime
and police and charges and court timeliness, and that just
piles it all up. At the Corrections end the year ago,
You've only got this mush money. You've only got this
mush staff. Good luck to you.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Well, has Corrections given any indication of any new funding
requests for next year.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Well, in budget twenty twenty five they asked for attack contingency,
which is basically, we want this money which the government
gave them to manage our forecast, which as I said earlier,
has been met nine months ahere to forecast. And the
attack contingency is basically, if you can give us this
extra money, you can put it on the shelf. It's
just for us in case there are more prisoners than
(13:50):
the forecast number, and that would be great because then
we can just pull it off the shelf if those
numbers are high than forecast, which they now are. Nikolaulas
said no, based on Treasury advice. They said, well, in fact,
I think it's better just to make you ask for
out of cycle funding they call it. So Corrections has
(14:10):
not asked for that money. Mark Mitchell told me last
week that you know, he's ready to support them if
they need that money. But there's so that there's such
a fiscal crunch on the government. I mean, they've got
so little available money and they're squeezing every department for
every last cent, you know, like they're taking hundreds of
millions of dollars from foreign tourists for example, which is
(14:31):
meant to go to tourism and conservation and then just
kind of squirreling it down over here for us, Thank
you very much. So it costs one point seven billion
dollars a year for corrections to manage the prison population,
so there's all this pressure on them to just do
everything with the baseline, which is what they're doing so far.
I just hope that, you know, let's say they really
(14:53):
need more money because it's because safety is at risk,
they'll ask for it and the government will give it
to them.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Thanks for joining us, Derek, You're welcome. That's it for
this episode of the Front Page. You can read more
about today's stories and extensive news coverage at enzid Herald
dot co dot MZ. The Front Page is produced by
Jane Ye and Richard Martin, who was also our editor.
(15:19):
I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to The Front Page on iHeartRadio
or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in on
Monday for another look behind the headlines.
Kyota at Chelsea Daniels here, host of the Front Page.
We're taking away breakover summer, but to help build the gap,
we're re issuing some of our most significant episodes of
twenty twenty five on behalf of the Front Page team.
Thanks for listening and we look forward to being back
with you on January twelfth, twenty twenty six. Kiyota, I'm
(00:44):
Chelsea Daniels, and this is the Front Page, a daily
podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. The Corrections Association
says New Zealand's prisons are in crisis. Last year saw
record breaking numbers of assaults on staff, almost double what
(01:06):
they were just seven years ago. There were also more
than fifteen hundred prisoner on prisoner attacks, the highest annual
figure on record. All of this comes with overcrowding, tight
budgets and a growing gang and meth problem. Today on
the Front Page ends at Herald, Senior reporter Derek Chang
(01:26):
is with us to dive into the numbers. So, Derek,
when you began looking into Correction's latest prison assault data,
what stood out to you?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Well, the figures are the highest on record, and obviously
the prison population fluctuates and the number of prison offices fluctuates.
At the moment, the prison population is an all time high.
It's just under teny nine hundred, and the last time
it was more or less the same population number was
(02:02):
back in March twenty eighteen. So it's interesting to compare
the numbers. So I mean corrections keeps the starter. It's
prisoner on prisoner assaults and prisoner on staff assaults. So
in the last year, which is twenty four twenty five,
were almost sixteen hundred prisoner prisoner assaults, and there were
(02:23):
almost eleven hundred prisoner staff assaults. And if you compare
that to the twenty seven eighteen year, which was when
the prison population was almost just as high, there are
almost twice as many prisoner staff assaults now or in
the latest year than then. And there's I think it's
a twenty eight percent increase in the number of prisoner
(02:46):
prisoner assaults.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Is this surge mainly about more violence or more reporting
of small incidents? Do you think?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Well, if you break the numbers down, the corrections data
is based on serious assault, non serious assault, and no
injury assault. So serious assault essentially is something that requires
a visit to the hospital, or is there to a
police charge, so the bar is reasonably high. And then
(03:16):
you have a non serious assault, which is which is
an injury, which which hasn't led to a hospital visit
or a police charge. And then you have a no
injury assault like you know, a shove or I throw
something at you or something like that, something small that
doesn't result an injury. So the numbers are actually quite
stable with serious assaults, and in fact they went down
(03:40):
slightly in the last year compared to the previous year.
The majority of the increase is definitely from non serious
and no injury assaults, and correction is also provided like
a breakdown per prison, so it's interesting to look at
each prison, although I mean, there are so many factors
involved in what happens and how an assault comes to
be and whether it's recorded in all those things. Corrections
(04:00):
has also said that there's definitely been a bigger focus
on reporting and that may explain some of the increase
in the numbers.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
You mentioned. The rising prison population is becoming more complex
with higher proportions of remand prisoners. You've got gang affiliated
in mates and math uses as well. How central is
this complexity, this cocktail to the rise of assaults.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Well, Corrections definitely thinks that the complexity of the prison
population has led to increasing chances of violence. People who
have a history of heavy matthews who then go to
prison are more likely to be involved in violence. There's
I think Corrections themselves referred to it as kind of
(04:49):
like pack beatings that happen in prison, and they tend
to be gang related. So if there are more gang
members in prisons, then there tend to be those kinds
of assaults. Just looking at the data as well, there's
more Category three sentences coming through the courts, and they
are the more serious offenses, punishable by at least two
years in prison. There is definitely a truth about the
(05:12):
complexity of the average prisoner, and I guess that would
mean that your average prisoner is more likely to end
up in these assult figures.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
It doesn't really surprise us, though, does it, that prisoner
numbers have gone up because nationals, how tough on crime,
stants actually promised more people in prisons.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
That's right, And there's a number of policies there. There's
the center single forms, there's a return of three strikes,
there's the ending of the section twenty seven reports for
state funding. All of these are projected to mean a
prison population that's three thousand higher in ten years time
than without those policies. Money for corrections is based on
(06:00):
these forecasts, right, So in this year's budget, the government
set aside a certain amount of money for corrections to manage,
and it's based on a forecast. The forecast was for
I think hundred and sixty by June next year. The
(06:22):
forecast back then, I mean was basically way out. Because
we're currently at tand one hundred and sixty, nine months
ahead of schedule, and that basically means that as the
prison population grows, which it's expected to, then the corrections
budget per prisoner is shrinking unless they ask for more money,
(06:43):
which they haven't. So corrections is just managing with the
baseline and it's just increasingly harder as the prison population grows,
the complexity of the prisoners coming in grows. They were
basically in a bit of a staffing crisis a few
years ago because the prison population was shooting up since
the start of twenty twenty two, and then they're just
(07:05):
playing catch up with frontline staff. That made a big
recruitment drive last year and they've halved the attrition rate,
which is staff turnover rate, so they're actually at a
better position than they have been, but there are still
two hundred and seventy seven officers corrections officers short of
where they want to be. And Creations describes this, and
(07:25):
there's a beautiful managerial phrase, suboptimal custodial frontline resilience, which
basically means that not operating with the ideal level of
staff and that really puts the staff under pressure. I
should also add that that this is nothing new for Corrections,
Like the forecast that was based for the prisoner forecast
(07:45):
that was used on the basis for funding for budget
twenty twenty four was also way below the numbers that
it rigally came out. So they've been doing this for
a while. And how long they can do it for
is anyone's guess, but it's certainly it's certainly suboptimal. In
Correction's own.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
To him, well, they're constantly playing catch up pay and
I'm never calling anything bad again. I'm going to be
calling it suboptimal from now on.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
The best we've ever been in the last eight years
in terms of staff. We're in the best position we
have been in eight years. It's not subpoptible at all.
It's not the Christians saying that they're suboptimal there saying
that Christians are the best place of the being. Like
I said, for eight years, there's an incoming government. They
(08:42):
started a new recruiting campaign that's been extremely successful. We've
got a massive popeline of people wanting to join and
become Creach suss as. We've got to other sevinty officers
been trained and ready to deployed at the moment.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
You also bring up double bunking, which has become an
issue and it's even been linked to a prisoner killing
his cell mate. Do I experts see double bunking as
an unavoidable necessity or a policy failure that's fueling that violence.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Well, it probably depends on who you ask. I remember
double bunking was brought in I think in twenty ten
or twenty eleven under the previous National government. I was
actually part of a cohorter journalists that were taken to
Ramattaka prison to sample the double bunking and you know,
the sales were barely roomy. They were really comfortable also,
(09:33):
you know, more centuring and with among them old members,
so it wasn't particularly dangerous, but double bunking has been
quite controversial. It's been increasingly used. I should say that
there's no current sort of capacity crisis because there's a
there was a recent addition to II carrier, so now
the current capacity is over twelve thousand, but forty five
(09:56):
percent of the prison population is now double bunked, so
that's basically five thousand prisoners. It's a lot, right, And
if we didn't have dumble bunking, then we wouldn't have capacity.
So it is a necessity. Prisoners are screen before they
put in a double bunk, but obviously that's not for
proof and as the Correction of the Association President Vluidipacy
(10:18):
was saying earlier this week, that creates violence, that creates tensions.
We've got some optimal sub optimal staffing. So again not
not not great. Assaults are going up and you know
there's no sort of there's no sort of reprieve coming.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
You know, Mitchell said about frontline staffing levels.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
He says things are going great, and obviously it's a
political perspective, but it's not entirely untrue because there was
much more of a staffing crisis a few years ago,
and they are in a much better position, but obviously
they would like to have more, hundreds more in fact,
and you know, kind of both perspectives are correct. Things
(11:08):
are better than they used to be, but they're still
at such a level where it creates more risk for
the staff and the staff for you know, you got
to feel for them because they can only have the
numbers that Corrections provides, which is based on government budgets.
(11:28):
But they are on the front line. They deal with
all of the complexities of that happen behind bars. And
that's saying that there are so few staff now that
there's a whole bunch of vacant shifts that aren't being filled.
Correction says that, you know, that's not because there's not
enough staff. It's because often for a sick leave or
(11:51):
some unforseeeable leave, and then the decision is made not
to bring more people in because it can be the
prison can be safely managed as it is. But the
union says, you know, it puts us more in danger,
it was there more in danger. It creates more tension
in the behind bars, and you know those and the
risks are heightened.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I mean, the union says and has told you that
it's already a crisis, but the Minister says it isn't.
Who do you reckon is closer to the truth.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Well, I mean they have different perspectives, right, I mean
the Corrections Association they represent the front line staff. They
don't want to see their front line staff and danger.
Obviously there's going to be some danger because it's just
the inherent nature of the job. They want to avoid
that as much as possible. Part of that is having
proper levels. Part is that that is minimizing the vacon shifts.
(12:47):
And the Minister, he backs the staff and he backs Corrections,
but he's also kind of hamstrung because you know it's
the finance minister who decides how much money they get.
Corrections just deals with the back end of the justice pipeline.
You know how many people go there isn't up to corrections.
(13:08):
They just have to manage it. It's all about crime
and police and charges and court timeliness, and that just
piles it all up. At the Corrections end the year ago,
You've only got this mush money. You've only got this
mush staff. Good luck to you.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Well, has Corrections given any indication of any new funding
requests for next year.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Well, in budget twenty twenty five they asked for attack contingency,
which is basically, we want this money which the government
gave them to manage our forecast, which as I said earlier,
has been met nine months ahere to forecast. And the
attack contingency is basically, if you can give us this
extra money, you can put it on the shelf. It's
just for us in case there are more prisoners than
(13:50):
the forecast number, and that would be great because then
we can just pull it off the shelf if those
numbers are high than forecast, which they now are. Nikolaulas
said no, based on Treasury advice. They said, well, in fact,
I think it's better just to make you ask for
out of cycle funding they call it. So Corrections has
(14:10):
not asked for that money. Mark Mitchell told me last
week that you know, he's ready to support them if
they need that money. But there's so that there's such
a fiscal crunch on the government. I mean, they've got
so little available money and they're squeezing every department for
every last cent, you know, like they're taking hundreds of
millions of dollars from foreign tourists for example, which is
(14:31):
meant to go to tourism and conservation and then just
kind of squirreling it down over here for us, Thank
you very much. So it costs one point seven billion
dollars a year for corrections to manage the prison population,
so there's all this pressure on them to just do
everything with the baseline, which is what they're doing so far.
I just hope that, you know, let's say they really
(14:53):
need more money because it's because safety is at risk,
they'll ask for it and the government will give it
to them.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Thanks for joining us, Derek, You're welcome. That's it for
this episode of the Front Page. You can read more
about today's stories and extensive news coverage at enzid Herald
dot co dot MZ. The Front Page is produced by
Jane Ye and Richard Martin, who was also our editor.
(15:19):
I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to The Front Page on iHeartRadio
or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in on
Monday for another look behind the headlines.
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