New regime inside jails for national lockdown
Covid doesn’t stop child custody sharing
Prison inmates will get a $5 phonecard and increased contact via email while the country is in lockdown.
On Tuesday, the Corrections Department advised it was suspending all private and volunteer visits, release to work activities and other non-essential movements in and out of prison sites.
Corrections national commissioner Rachel Leota said the department wanted to help maintain contact for inmates through increased telephone calls, letters and emails.
More phones would be installed in residential units, and the use of inbound emails that can be printed and given to inmates would rise.
Following the Government’s lockdown announcement, Corrections had been assessing the operational impact for managing 10,000 people in prisons and about 30,000 people serving sentences in the community, Leota said. The prison muster currently is 10,034, with 3911 on remand.
About 34 per cent of prisoners are double bunked and prisoners are encouraged to maintain a 2-metre distance from each other, wherever possible.
Plans were in place to mitigate the risk of any infectious illness from spreading in prison, she said.
All new prisoners will go into isolation for 14 days, while prisoners displaying any symptoms are also being isolated. Prisoners over 70 years old and those with underlying health conditions would be managed separately.
The department had been following advice from the Ministry of Health since January in order to mitigate the risk Covid-19 presented in a prison environment.
Prison staff would use measures practised last year during the measles outbreak, to quickly isolate prisoners as required and identify their contacts.
Further changes would be made within the next couple of days.
Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis said there had been no confirmed cases of Covid-19 in any prison. The normal process for release, including Out of Gate support, would continue.
Corrections has also suspended community work activities.
From yesterday, all Community Corrections sites would be closed and probation staff would continue to monitor offenders serving sentences in the community via phone, Leota said. ‘‘Staff will continue to assist people to source accommodation and provide other practical support as we can.’’
All electronic monitoring of offenders in the community would also continue as usual, including the installation or removal of monitoring equipment. Reports for the Parole Board and courts will also continue, with interviews done by phone or video link.
Staff in receiving offices and units accommodating prisoners during their first 14 days in prison will wear face masks and gloves when interacting with prisoners and will be practising physical distancing.
Personal protective gear was also available for health staff treating unwell prisoners.
Separated parents should continue to share custody of their children during the coronavirus shutdown, if they live in the same town or city. Justice Minister Andrew Little says the four-week selfisolation order will be no excuse for parents to renege on child custody arrangements — meaning children will have to move between homes. ‘‘I would really hope in these very extraordinary, difficult circumstances that people will kind of look beyond their own immediate kind of feelings, and think about everybody – their child, the other parent, and most importantly the community.’’ The principal Family Court judge, Jacquelyn Moran, said children in the same towns or cities could move between homes if it did not compromise the health of their families. Children should not move between homes if they or someone at home is unwell, or if someone in the home has been overseas or is deemed a close contact of a confirmed or possible Covid-19 case.
The prison muster currently is 10,034, with 3911 on remand.