Top guards punished after probe

Elite Christchurch Men’s Prison guards have received warnings after a major investigation into security issues at the jail.

However, the fate of three senior staff – the prison’s director John Roper, security manager John Cooper and residential manager Doug Smith – has yet to to be decided. The trio remain on ‘‘special leave’’.

The Department of Corrections announced in May it had launched an investigation into potential ‘‘non compliance’’ with ‘‘security procedures’’ at the prison, but did not provide further details.

In August, Stuff obtained a section of the inquiry’s draft report, which revealed the Site Emergency Response Team (SERT) – a group of elite guards – used ‘‘unauthorised’’ covert listening devices to intercept private communications at the prison – a criminal offence.

Senior staff and managers directed the devices’ use and those who used them ‘‘assumed they were authorised’’, the report said.

It is understood the full report details other serious concerns about activities at the prison. However, Corrections has refused to release it under the Official Information Act, citing privacy, the ongoing employment action and the need to ‘‘protect any investigation by police from prejudice’’.

On Wednesday, the department’s southern regional commissioner Ben Clark confirmed three staff had been ‘‘subject to disciplinary action’’ since the report was finalised in August. It is understood the group included SERT members. At least one of them received a final warning.

Three other staff – understood to be Roper, who was already on a final warning, Cooper and Smith – remained on ‘‘special leave’’.

‘‘We are continuing to work through employment matters with them,’’ Clark said. ‘‘We demand a high standard of conduct and integrity from all employees and if any staff don’t meet the standards required of them then we take appropriate action.’’

Corrections previously said the investigation’s findings, which contained ‘‘extremely serious allegations’’ would be forwarded to police ‘‘when appropriate’’. That was yet to happen, a spokesman said this week.

New Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis said he had been briefed on the investigation, but had not seen the final report – something he would request. ‘‘I’m confident the process Corrections has undertaken is the appropriate one,’’ he said. ‘‘The actions of the staff were totally unacceptable.’’

Roper said he was unable to discuss the investigation because ‘‘we’re working through the process’’ and still ‘‘bound by the code of conduct’’.

Cooper and Smith could not be reached for comment.

SERTs were set up at several prisons after an inquiry into a 2013 riot at Waikato’s Spring Hill Corrections Facility.

There were concerns the teams had a similar mandate to the Emergency Response Unit, dubbed the ‘‘goon squad’’, which operated out of Canterbury until it was disbanded in 2000 amid complaints of bullying inmates and aggressive treatment of members.

In April, Stuff reported that Roper and Smith received employment warnings after an inmate at the prison self-harmed while left on his own for several hours in an exercise yard on June 21 last year. The incident took nine days to be flagged at a national level after local staff failed to report it.

Roper previously warned staff they would ‘‘face the consequences’’ for leaking information to the media.

The prison houses about 900 inmates and is one of the country’s largest.