Prison inspection identifies problems

An inspection of Whanganui Prison has returned a generally good review, but the prison does have problems it needs to fix.

The Office of the Inspectorate yesterday released its report on a visit to the prison, east of Whanganui. Built in the 1970s, the prison can hold up to to 557 inmates, ranging from minimum to high security, including remand prisoners.

The 12-week inspection mostly went well. Inmates were getting reasonable health care, plenty of time out of their cells, and were treated with respect.

Prisoners reported a lack of violence and intimidation, and many of them were in rehabilitation programmes. They said staff were approachable and offered assistance, while the inspectors saw staff actively helping

when inmates were dealing with health problems or grief.

There was good access to the gym and library, and staff were also respectful when carrying out strip searches.

There were problems, though. Inmates complained about the size of cubicles in prison vans and how rough journeys could be.

The lack of toilets made long trips uncomfortable, leading to

prisoners using drains in the vans as toilets.

Staff said they often had to call in people to do escorts and temporary staff were not as skillful at driving the vans.

The thoroughness of rub-down searches varied widely from unit to unit. Corrections was reviewing escort standards and sent out a reminder about rubdown searching.