‘ Jailhouse lawyer’ seeks compo for ‘ unlawful’ mass strip search

No reasons were given for any of the strip searches . . . Complainant Arthur Taylor

Notorious inmates at New Zealand’s toughest prison are demanding compensation and an apology from the Department of Corrections for a mass strip search they say was unlawful.

Led by “jailhouse lawyer” and long- serving inmate Arthur Taylor, the group includes prison escaper Phillip John Smith, murderer Liam Reid, international drug smuggler David Ikenna Obiaga, sex offenders Karl Richard Smith and Larry Gordon Cant, carjacker Tony Temoananui and Jacob Komene, who broke into his 95- year- old neighbour’s home and stabbed him in the head.

The complaint, filed in December, claims 18 inmates at Auckland Prison were subjected to an unlawful “blanket strip search” on October 21.

The search came after six prison officers were attacked by inmates at the maximum security prison at Paremoremo, north of Auckland. Three guards suffered stab wounds to their heads, necks, hands and shoulders.

After the attack on a landing in C Block, Taylor and his fellow inmates claim the blanket strip search was instigated in the prison’s A, B, D and special needs blocks.

Taylor claims such searches are unlawful and is seeking a formal apology from Corrections and $ 600 compensation for each inmate.

He alleges the Corrections Act does not authorise blanket strip searches and that the search the inmates were subjected to was “unfair, unreasonable and in breach of the act”.

“No reasons were given for any of the strip searches that were undertaken against any of the prisoners that are signatories to this complaint,” Taylor wrote.

Under the act, a prison officer may strip- search an inmate if they have “reasonable grounds for believing the prisoner has in his or her possession an unauthorised item”. The officer must obtain the approval of their manager to conduct the search.

Taylor cited legal rulings within the complaint that he says “have made it clear to the Department of Corrections that blanket strip searches are unlawful”.

He said the search on October 21 involved about 196 prisoners.

“There is no doubt that the strip search of all prisoners in the Alpha, Bravo, Delta and special needs blocks at Auckland Prison was a blanket strip search,” he said.

“There could not have possibly been reasonable grounds to suspect that every single one of those prisoners possessed an unauthorised item . . . no unauthorised items were found.”

He said the issue was “very serious” and described blanket searches as cruel, degrading and “disproportionately severe treatment or pun- ishment”.

If the complaint is upheld in relation to all 196 inmates that Taylor claims were affected, Corrections could face a compensation bill of $ 117,600.

Taylor said the amount of $ 600 was set by the Court of Appeal as a “quantum for an unlawful strip search”.

Corrections acting regional commissioner Alastair Riach confirmed the complaint was being considered.

In recent years Taylor has successfully challenged the legality of a prison smoking ban and the refusal to allow inmates to vote.