Accused’s mail security tightened

The Christchurch terror suspect is in lockdown with no way to share his messages, the Corrections boss says.

It follows the revelation that a letter written by the mosque-attack accused was mailed and later posted in an online messaging board popular with white supremacists.

A new strengthened process around correspondence for the terror suspect, who is being held in isolation in a high security-wing at Auckland Prison, has been put in place and is being overseen by Corrections chief executive Christine Stevenson.

She said he is being kept separate from other prisoners and had a small constrained exercise yard that was only used for a restricted period each day.

He is allowed one telephone call each week to an approved person, which was heavily monitored and is allowed two visits from approved family members, as well as his lawyers.

She confirmed that he had rights and was entitled to ‘‘reasonable news’’ and given ‘‘carefully collated’’ articles put together by senior staff with good judgment – better than those handling the letters, she said.

Stevenson told Stuff acting Prison Director David Pattinson and an intelligence officer were to blame for the letter botch-up that ‘‘let the country down’’.

She and the prison director were both ‘‘utterly distraught’’, she said.

It was ‘‘deeply and profoundly embarrassing’’ for Corrections but she did not believe her role as head of the department would be on the line.

When asked how the letter managed to get past the pair, she said: The intelligence analyst examined the letter and along with the prison director, made the final assessment if the correspondence was suitable for release.

The analyst would have been trained for things to look out for and the director, while not trained, would have used experience to make a call, she said. She was now taking personal responsibility for the accused’s correspondence.

The letters will also be reviewed by a multidisciplinary team including psychologists, the chief custodial officer and external alt-right experts and academics who have been called in to assist.

There were about 100 other prisoners who were identified as having extremist ideologies, she said.

All letters from prisoners holding these extremist views would be processed at a centralised location. A hand-picked team, who knew what to look out for, would read them.

All letters from prisoners holding these extremist views would be processed at a centralised location.