No changes planned for prison

THE Invercargill prison will stay exactly that — for now.

In December last year, prison staff were left up in arms after the Department of Corrections mooted it was investigating changing the prison, at present used as a jail for low to medium category sentenced offenders and those on remand, into a remand centre only.

A draft document was sent to prison workers’ union Corrections Association of New Zealand (Canz), however no formal proposal was put forward so it could be discussed with its members.

At the time, Southern acting regional commissioner Chris O’BrienSmith would not confirm what options were being investigated, but said any changes would be done with consideration of the prisoners at the forefront of the decision making.

‘‘The reduction in the prison population has reduced the demand for beds. This has provided an opportunity for us to consider moving some men residing at Invercargill Prison to newer accommodation that better matches their security classification and improves their access to employment, education and rehabilitation programmes,’’ she said.

However, it seems the changes are on hold, for now.

Canz vicepresident Paul Dennehy said Invercargill Prison staff were recently informed by Corrections acting regional commissioner Glenn Morrison there were no plans to restructure Invercargill Prison in the next 1224 months.

‘‘He further stated that things can change but he was not aware of any plans to restructure Invercargill Prison,’’ Mr Dennehy said.

In a response to a query put to the Department of Corrections from the Otago Daily Times, a spokesman said: ‘‘Invercargill Prison continues to operate as normal and, as previously stated, there are no plans to close Invercargill Prison, nor will we be reducing our staffing operations.’’

There were no plans to make any changes to the prison, he said.