October 2, 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 (00:05):
Gilda.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm 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
(00:28):
what they were just seven years ago. There were also
more than fifteen hundred the 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's senior reporter, Derek
(00:48):
Chang is with us to dive into the numbers. So, Derek,
when you began looking into corrections latest prison assault data,
what stood out to you?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Well, the figures are the highest on record, and obviously
the prison population fluctuates and the number of prison officers 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
(01:24):
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 to twenty five,
there were almost sixteen hundred prisoner prisoner assaults and there
(01:44):
were 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
were almost twice as many prisoner staff assaults or in
the latest year than then. And there's I think it's
(02:04):
twenty eight percent increase in the number of prison of
prisoner assaults.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Is this surge mainly about more violence or more reporting
of small incidents? Do you think?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
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 lead to a
police charge, so the bar is reasonably high. And then
(02:38):
you have a non serious assault, 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
in an injury. So the numbers are actually quite stable with
serious assaults, and in fact they went down slightly in
(03:03):
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 has also
(03:23):
said that there's definitely been a bigger focus on reporting
and that may explain some of the increase in the numbers.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
You mentioned. The rising prison population is becoming more complex
with higher proportions of remand prisoners, you've got gang affiliated
inmates and meth uses as well. How central is this
complexity this cocktail to the rise of assaults.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Well, Corrections definitely thinks that the complexity of the prison
population has led to increasing chances of violence. People who
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 refer to it as kind
(04:11):
of 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
(04:34):
the complexity of the average prisoner, and I guess that
would mean that your average prisoner is more likely to
end up in these assault figures.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
It doesn't really surprise us, though, does it, that prisoner
numbers have gone up because national's hole tough on crime.
Stants actually promised more people in prisons.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
That's right, And there's a number of policies there. There's
the Center Single Forms, there's the 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
(05:22):
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 eight hundred and sixty prisoners by June
(05:43):
next year. The forecast back then, I mean it's basically
way out, because we're currently at one hundred and sixty
nine months ahead of schedule, and that basically means that
as the prison population grows, which it's to, then the
Corrections budget per prisoner is shrinking unless they ask for
(06:05):
more money, 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 staff in
crisis a few years ago because the prison population was
shooting up since the start of twenty twenty two, and
(06:26):
then they're just 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
offices short of where they want to be. And Corrections
describes this, and there's a beautiful managerial phrase, suboptimal custodial
(06:52):
frontline resilience which basically means they're 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 that was used on the basis
for funding for budget twenty twenty four was also way
(07:13):
below the numbers that it erientually came out. So they've
been they've been doing this for a while. And how
long they can do it for as anyone's guess, but
it's certainly it's certainly suboptimal in corrections own turn.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
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 (07:42):
The best we've ever been in the last eight years
in terms of staff. We're in the best position we
have been eight years. So it's not suboptimal at all.
It's not the Christian sign that the suboptimal, the sign
that Christians are the best place of being. Like I said,
eight years there's an incoming government. They started a new
(08:04):
recruiting campaign that's been extremely successful. We've got a massive
poplin of people wanting to join and become cruse stouts
as we've got another civity, officers been trying to really
deploy it. The violence.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
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 1 (08:34):
Well, that 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 cohort of journalists that were taken
to Ramataka Prison to sample the double bunking and you know,
the sales were barely roomy. They were really comfortable. Also,
(08:55):
you know, wasn't sharing it with among them by 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 my carrier. So now
the current capacity is over twelve thousand, but forty five
(09:18):
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 bugging, 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 fol
proof and as the correction of the Association President Vlouidipassy
(09:40):
was saying earlier this week, that creates violence, that creates tensions.
We've got some optimal suboptimal stapping. So again not not great.
Assaults are going up and you know there's no sort
of there's no sort of reprieve coming.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
You know, Mitchell said about frontline staffing levels.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
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
(10:30):
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, you know, you got to
feel for them because they can only have the numbers
that corrections provides, which is based on government budgets, but
(10:50):
they are on the front line. They deal with all
of the complexities of that happen behind bars. And they're
saying that there are so few staff now that there's
a whole bunch of vacant shifts that aren't being filled.
Creation says that, you know that's not because there's not
enough staff. It's because often for a sick leave or
(11:13):
some unforseeable 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 puts there more in danger. It creates more tension
in the behind bars, and you know those and the
risks are heightened.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
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 1 (11:45):
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
then nature of the job. They want to avoid that
as much as possible. Part of that is having proper levels.
(12:05):
Part is that that is minimizing the baking shifts. 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.
(12:27):
You know how many people go there isn't up to corrections.
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 much money, You've only got this
much staff. Good luck to you.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Well, has Corrections given any indication of any new funding
requests for next year.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
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 folks, which as I said earlier,
has been met nine months a here to forecast and
attag 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
(13:12):
the forecast number, and that would be great because then
we can just pull it off the shelf if those
numbers are than forecast, which they now are. Nikolallas 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 not
(13:33):
usd 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 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, they're
taking hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign tourists for example,
(13:53):
which is meant to go to the 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,
(14:14):
would say to really 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 2 (14:20):
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 enzidherld dot
co dot MZ. The Front Page is produced by Jane
Ye and Richard Martin, who was also our editor. I'm
(14:42):
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.
Gilda.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm 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
(00:28):
what they were just seven years ago. There were also
more than fifteen hundred the 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's senior reporter, Derek
(00:48):
Chang is with us to dive into the numbers. So, Derek,
when you began looking into corrections latest prison assault data,
what stood out to you?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Well, the figures are the highest on record, and obviously
the prison population fluctuates and the number of prison officers 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
(01:24):
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 to twenty five,
there were almost sixteen hundred prisoner prisoner assaults and there
(01:44):
were 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
were almost twice as many prisoner staff assaults or in
the latest year than then. And there's I think it's
(02:04):
twenty eight percent increase in the number of prison of
prisoner assaults.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Is this surge mainly about more violence or more reporting
of small incidents? Do you think?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
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 lead to a
police charge, so the bar is reasonably high. And then
(02:38):
you have a non serious assault, 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
in an injury. So the numbers are actually quite stable with
serious assaults, and in fact they went down slightly in
(03:03):
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 has also
(03:23):
said that there's definitely been a bigger focus on reporting
and that may explain some of the increase in the numbers.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
You mentioned. The rising prison population is becoming more complex
with higher proportions of remand prisoners, you've got gang affiliated
inmates and meth uses as well. How central is this
complexity this cocktail to the rise of assaults.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Well, Corrections definitely thinks that the complexity of the prison
population has led to increasing chances of violence. People who
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 refer to it as kind
(04:11):
of 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
(04:34):
the complexity of the average prisoner, and I guess that
would mean that your average prisoner is more likely to
end up in these assault figures.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
It doesn't really surprise us, though, does it, that prisoner
numbers have gone up because national's hole tough on crime.
Stants actually promised more people in prisons.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
That's right, And there's a number of policies there. There's
the Center Single Forms, there's the 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
(05:22):
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 eight hundred and sixty prisoners by June
(05:43):
next year. The forecast back then, I mean it's basically
way out, because we're currently at one hundred and sixty
nine months ahead of schedule, and that basically means that
as the prison population grows, which it's to, then the
Corrections budget per prisoner is shrinking unless they ask for
(06:05):
more money, 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 staff in
crisis a few years ago because the prison population was
shooting up since the start of twenty twenty two, and
(06:26):
then they're just 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
offices short of where they want to be. And Corrections
describes this, and there's a beautiful managerial phrase, suboptimal custodial
(06:52):
frontline resilience which basically means they're 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 that was used on the basis
for funding for budget twenty twenty four was also way
(07:13):
below the numbers that it erientually came out. So they've
been they've been doing this for a while. And how
long they can do it for as anyone's guess, but
it's certainly it's certainly suboptimal in corrections own turn.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
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 (07:42):
The best we've ever been in the last eight years
in terms of staff. We're in the best position we
have been eight years. So it's not suboptimal at all.
It's not the Christian sign that the suboptimal, the sign
that Christians are the best place of being. Like I said,
eight years there's an incoming government. They started a new
(08:04):
recruiting campaign that's been extremely successful. We've got a massive
poplin of people wanting to join and become cruse stouts
as we've got another civity, officers been trying to really
deploy it. The violence.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
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 1 (08:34):
Well, that 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 cohort of journalists that were taken
to Ramataka Prison to sample the double bunking and you know,
the sales were barely roomy. They were really comfortable. Also,
(08:55):
you know, wasn't sharing it with among them by 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 my carrier. So now
the current capacity is over twelve thousand, but forty five
(09:18):
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 bugging, 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 fol
proof and as the correction of the Association President Vlouidipassy
(09:40):
was saying earlier this week, that creates violence, that creates tensions.
We've got some optimal suboptimal stapping. So again not not great.
Assaults are going up and you know there's no sort
of there's no sort of reprieve coming.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
You know, Mitchell said about frontline staffing levels.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
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
(10:30):
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, you know, you got to
feel for them because they can only have the numbers
that corrections provides, which is based on government budgets, but
(10:50):
they are on the front line. They deal with all
of the complexities of that happen behind bars. And they're
saying that there are so few staff now that there's
a whole bunch of vacant shifts that aren't being filled.
Creation says that, you know that's not because there's not
enough staff. It's because often for a sick leave or
(11:13):
some unforseeable 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 puts there more in danger. It creates more tension
in the behind bars, and you know those and the
risks are heightened.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
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 1 (11:45):
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
then nature of the job. They want to avoid that
as much as possible. Part of that is having proper levels.
(12:05):
Part is that that is minimizing the baking shifts. 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.
(12:27):
You know how many people go there isn't up to corrections.
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 much money, You've only got this
much staff. Good luck to you.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Well, has Corrections given any indication of any new funding
requests for next year.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
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 folks, which as I said earlier,
has been met nine months a here to forecast and
attag 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
(13:12):
the forecast number, and that would be great because then
we can just pull it off the shelf if those
numbers are than forecast, which they now are. Nikolallas 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 not
(13:33):
usd 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 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, they're
taking hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign tourists for example,
(13:53):
which is meant to go to the 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,
(14:14):
would say to really 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 2 (14:20):
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 enzidherld dot
co dot MZ. The Front Page is produced by Jane
Ye and Richard Martin, who was also our editor. I'm
(14:42):
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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