Staff gave cellphones to inmates

Staff at one of the country’s largest jails played favourites with inmates, allowing them access to cellphones during covert information-gathering operations.

A major Department of Corrections inquiry last year unearthed ‘‘extremely serious allegations’’ relating to ‘‘a number of substandard management and security practices’’ at Christchurch Men’s Prison.

The findings of the security review have been referred to the police, who are investigating.

Three of the jail’s senior staff – prison director John Roper, who is on a final warning, security manager John Cooper and residential unit manager Doug Smith – have been on ‘‘special leave’’ since concerns about ‘‘security procedures’’ at the prison were raised in May last year.

Stuff was leaked two pages of the department’s draft findings last year, which revealed elite guards from the prison’s Site Emergency Response Team (SERT) illegally spied on inmates using unauthorised covert devices.

Corrections refused to release the full investigation report, which was completed in August, because it says it contains information that could prejudice the ongoing police investigation, endanger people’s lives and discourage confidential informants.

However, the chief ombudsman, following a complaint from

Stuff, ruled a summary of the findings should be released, which Corrections made available late last week.

It says the department’s investigation report, which was passed to police late last year because of the ‘‘serious nature of the findings’’, ‘‘indicates non-compliance with legislation and security procedures’’, including the Corrections Act.

Use of cellphones

‘‘The issues identified as part of the security review relate to failing to action a number of intelligence reports and telephone monitoring disclosures, use of cellphones and the use of covert audio devices,’’ the summary says.

The review found staff gave ‘‘favourable treatment’’ to some inmates who, according to the leaked documents, were given cellphones during covert operations. Cellphones are contraband in prison.

An ex-prison guard, who did not want to be named, said playing favourites with inmates and giving them items like cellphones was dangerous and ‘‘against everything we’re taught at college’’.

Prisoners could use the unauthorised activity to blackmail guards into getting them drugs and other illicit items, the exguard said.

Canterbury district crime manager Detective Inspector Darryl Sweeney confirmed last week police were investigating a ‘‘narrow’’ part of the department’s findings.

Corrections previously confirmed three staff had been ‘‘subject to disciplinary action’’ since the department’s investigation report was finalised in August. It is understood the group included SERT members. At least one of them received a final warning. ‘Special leave’

The department said last week three other staff – understood to be Roper, Cooper and Smith – remained on ‘‘special leave’’. Employment action was ‘‘ongoing’’. In an email to staff a fortnight ago, Corrections southern regional commissioner Ben Clark acknowledged the ‘‘ongoing uncertainty may be unsettling’’ for some.

A prison source said the investigation had dragged on too long. The wages of the three managers sidelined on full-pay could have funded several new prison guards to cover shortages.

‘‘There’s a lot of people disillusioned,’’ the source said.

SERTS were set up at several of the country’s prisons after an inquiry into a riot at Spring Hill Corrections Facility in Waikato in 2013.

There were concerns the teams had a similar mandate to the Emergency Response Unit, dubbed the ‘‘goon squad’’, which operated out of Canterbury until it was disbanded in 2000 amid complaints of bullying inmates and aggressive treatment of members.

In April last year, Stuff reported Roper and Smith received employment warnings after an inmate at the prison self-harmed while left on his own for several hours in an exercise yard on June 21 last year. The incident took nine days to be flagged at a national level after local staff failed to report it.

Roper previously warned staff they would ‘‘face the consequences’’ for leaking information to the media.