Reform is focus in perks at $300m jail
TVs in cells, a garden for reflection with native plants and a rock water feature, an indoor basketball court, computers and an industry training area and kiosks for ordering birthday cards are features at the new $300 million Auckland Prison.
A tour of the new jail at Paremoremo, opened yesterday by Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis and Corrections chief executive Ray Smith, showed features of the facility for 681 prisoners in New Zealand’s only maximum security men’s jail.
Free-to-air television channels will be available in most cells, along with two internal Corrections’ channels showing documentaries which include yoga instruction, staff said.
Corrections staff said the sensory garden was the first garden of its type in a New Zealand jail and would give prisoners a quiet space where they could reflect or talk and have contact with a more natural environment.
The basketball court is in a secure internal area with fixed, wallmounted exercise equipment.
David Grear, industries manager, said computers were important, citing literacy, driver licence and educational programmes.
A kiosk in a day room, activated via fingerprint technology, enables prisoners to buy personal items, including drinks and birthday cards.
Corrections says the “functional” layout and design of the new site will change the maximum security scene, with “dual secure separated corridors and remote electronic control of housing and prisoner movements. These design features will allow prisoners to access services with less need for prisoners to be escorted off their unit. This will enable the prison to be operated more safely and efficiently.”
Cell sizes will rise from 5.8sq m in the Delta Unit of the old Auckland East prison and 8.5sq m in a standard Auckland South Corrections cell to 9sq m in the new buildings. All the cells are for single occupancy.
Asked if prisoners got too much, Smith said: “If you just take things off people, you leave them with nothing to lose.”
Auckland Prison director Andy Langley said maximum security inmates would spend around 19 to 20 hours a day in cells. But the new prison had a strong emphasis on rehabilitation including industry training, treatment and education, with programmes aimed at preventing reoffending.