Inmate tied down 37 nights

Report blasts Corrections’ care of mentally ill prisoners but minister defends practices Young author thought $200k prize a hoax

The use of restraints on mentally ill prisoners amounts to torture and undermines New Zealand’s status as a civilised country, a leading lawyer says.

Nigel Hampton, QC, said a damning investigation into tie-down beds and waist restraints in jails showed the Corrections Department did not appear to have learned from previous inquiries into the care of severely ill people behind bars.

“It’s quite extraordinary that in a first-world country which prides itself on its treatment of its citizens that this is happening,” he said.

Hampton, the patron of the prison reform group Howard League, said he was not yet convinced about Corrections’ promises to overhaul mental health services in jails.

The report comes as Corrections is developing a specialised mental health facility in Auckland and invests more workers.

“We get the heads of Corrections saying it, saying it and saying it, and not doing it,” Hampton said.

“They don’t treat unwell people properly. It’s as simple as that.”

Ombudsman Judge Peter Boshier’s investigation, released yesterday, found five times where tie-down beds or waist restraints were used to manage severely at-risk inmates between July 2015 and June last year. The treatment of the prisoners had breached the United Nations’ Convention against Torture and Corrections’ own legislation.

The Corrections Department stressed that the cases were isolated and that the inmates had some of the most complex needs in the criminal justice and health systems. in mental health

But Boshier also raised broader concerns about the department’s units for at-risk patients, in particular the “basic” training of staff, absence of privacy, and isolation. In some cases, severely ill inmates never received psychiatric treatment during their incarceration.

Generally, Corrections’ management of at-risk prisoners around the country was “substandard and detrimental to their wellbeing”, Boshier

said. Tie-down beds and waist restraints can only be lawfully used in New Zealand jails as a last resort. Boshier found that one inmate at Auckland Prison was tied to his bed for 16 hours at a time, 37 nights in a row. In all, the prisoner spent 592 hours in restraints, and sometimes soiled his bed. His limbs were not moved during the prolonged periods of restraint — a breach of the Corrections Act and Corrections’ policies. In 36 of the 37 nights, Corrections staff failed to obtain medical approval

HIt’s the kind of news we all dream of receiving, but New Zealand author and poet Ashleigh Young thought it was a hoax when told she had received more than $200,000 from one of the world’s richest and most secretive literature prizes.

Young, 33, arrived at work last Thursday to find a “suspicious looking email” from Yale University about the Donald Windham-Sandy M Campbell Literature Prize.

Unsure if it was a scam, and she strongly suspected it was, she forwarded it to her Victoria University Press boss, Fergus Barrowman, who told her to open it.

“I nearly sent it straight to my spam folder,” admits Young, who didn’t know she was in the running for such a prize. “I was completely gobsmacked. “It’s not an amount of money or the type of thing I’ve ever thought I would have to think about in my life. It still seems entirely abstract.”

She is the first New Zealander to receive a Windham-Campbell Literature Prize and, like previous recipients in its five-year history, knew nothing about it until the nzherald.co.nz For a video on this issue email notification arrived.

Established by US writer Donald Windham in memory of his actor-partner of 40 years, Sandy M Campbell, the WindhamCampbell prizes are given to English language writers of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and drama anywhere in the world.

Potential recipients are nominated confidentially and those nominations are then considered and judged anonymously by a nine-member jury.

Up to nine prizes are awarded annually with winners receiving a citation and an unrestricted remuneration of US$165,000 ($230,000).

Young, the author of a 2012 book of poetry, Magnificent Moon, and last year’s essay collection Can You Tolerate This?, works as a creative writing tutor at Victoria University and editor at Victoria University Press.

Canvas editor Michelle Hurley says Young is at the forefront of New Zealand’s younger writers and her collection of essays, including Breathe which Canvas published last year, shows a writer of unusual promise.

— Dionne Christian for the restraints — also a breach of the department’s rules.

Corrections told investigators that the man had been tied down to prevent self-harm, but the Ombudsman said he was successfully managed during the daytime without restraints. The use of tie-down beds coincided with reduced staffing levels, Boshier said.

Boshier accepted the difficulty of managing high-needs prisoners, but said tying an inmate to a bed for up to 16 hours each day “as a way of managing resourcing pressures” was not appropriate.

Corrections Minister Louise Upston defended Corrections staff, saying they worked with inmates who had long-standing, complex mental health issues.

Upston said the prisoners “may well have died” without Corrections’ intervention and the use of the restraints.

“The bottom line for Corrections must always be to maintain the lives of the people in their care, while treating them with dignity.”

But she also said there were lessons for the department in the report, and some of the recommendations had already been adopted.