No records for deploying prison riot squads

WELLINGTON: The department in charge of New Zealand’s prisons is scrambling to find out how often specialist riot squads have been deployed to control inmates.

It comes after a Newstalk ZB investigation found Corrections was effectively running blind, despite staff responding to ‘‘extremely volatile’’ events, like riots and brawls.

Acting national commissioner Leigh Marsh has confirmed there was no central record of when advanced control and restraint (ACR) teams had been sent out.

‘‘Corrections acknowledges that recording deployments was an area that needed further development.’’

Mr Marsh said work was under way to gather the information.

‘‘A register of ACR deployments has been created.

‘‘ACR commanders have been asked to recall and record previous activations and deployments over the last 12 months and in future, centralised records will be kept of ACR deployments.’’

The major development comes following revelations earlier this year that Corrections did not keep a close eye on deployments, and instead instructed officers to note them in separate incident reports.

At the time, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis said he could not ‘‘reliably and readily extract’’ details on how many times the teams had been used since October 2017, and if any requests for support were turned away.

A Corrections spokesman maintained the department did keep track and, given enough time, would be able to gather the data.

But when ZB asked for the same details under the Official Information Act (OIA), the request was partially refused as the data did not exist.

Instead, Mr Leigh Marsh provided ‘‘initial information’’ about a handful of deployments, including during the Waikeria Prison riot in 202021.

‘‘It is important to note that this data is still being validated by Corrections staff. It is not complete but is provided to the best of Corrections’ ability at this time’’, he said.

An ACR team is made up of officers who have received additional specialist training, and can be called upon for an incident, either at the site they work at, or another site that requires assistance. —