Progress at prison will ‘take time’

Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says improvements at the troubled Christchurch Men’s Prison will take time.

Davis met with management a month after the release of a damning report on conditions at the facility.

The prison has been under interim management since May when director John Roper and two other senior staff were placed on ‘‘special leave’’ while concerns about jail security were investigated.

Last month, the Ombudsman released a report on conditions at the facility, outlining a culture of bullying and violence with unacceptable conditions for at-risk prisoners.

The report triggered a rebuke from Davis, who labelled the findings unacceptable.

He visited the South Island’s largest prison for the first time as Corrections Minister on Wednesday.

‘‘Managing and running a prison is always challenging but certainly from what I saw there wasn’t an air of tension or anything like that,’’ Davis said.

‘‘I’m more confident. There’s always work to be done and we’ll never ever say it’s a perfect prison, but work has been done to address the Ombudsman’s concerns, that work will be ongoing.’’

Davis was shown around the facility by its acting prison director as part of a wider tour of South Island businesses and organisations related to his portfolios, including four other prisons.

He spoke to prison management about the rehabilitation, education and training programmes available at the facility, and spent time with youth offenders who had recently run a marathon in laps around the prison perimeter.

Davis was also shown the new management unit, due to open in August for prisoners who need to be segregated for their own safety, or that of others.

The Ombudsman was particularly critical of the at-risk unit at Christchurch Men’s, finding it anti-therapeutic, not-fit-forpurpose and in breach of Nelson Mandela Rules requiring natural light and fresh air.

Corrections is planning for a new at-risk unit at the prison. Davis said it was likely to be finished in 2019 or early 2020, and it would be difficult to make physical improvements in the interim.

‘‘Basically a concrete cell is a concrete cell,’’ he said, adding that staff were doing what they could to improve the way they dealt with prisoners in the at-risk unit.

Of the prisoners surveyed during the unannounced inspection by the Ombudsman last April, 49 per cent claimed to have been assaulted behind bars, while only 27 per cent had reported an attack.

Davis said it was critical prisoners had faith in the complaints process. A Prisoner Safety Forum was under way to better understand prisoners’ experiences of the process, he said.

‘‘Things are changing ... It takes time, but over the coming months and years we’ll see improvements, and to be honest I’m looking forward to further Ombudsman’s reports just to show the progress we’ve made.’’

Roper was stood down in May last year along with two senior staff, believed to be security manager John Cooper and residential unit manager Doug Smith.

In August, obtained a section of the inquiry’s draft report, which revealed elite guards had used covert listening devices to intercept private communications – a criminal offence.

Davis was unable to comment on the matter, while acting regional commissioner Glenn Morrison said three staff remained on special leave while Corrections continued to work through employment matters with them.

"Managing and running a prison is always challenging.'' Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis