‘Monkeys are running the zoo’ at prison

Mt Eden prison’s violence statistics have eclipsed every other jail in the country, with rates of one prisoner being assaulted nearly every three days.

The latest Department of Corrections statistics show that, in the year ending March 31, 2015, 115 prisoners were assaulted at Mt Eden.

Seven of those suffered serious enough physical or sexual attacks to require being taken to hospital, the figures made public under the Official Information Act show.

After it emerged that one Mt Eden prisoner died earlier this year after either falling or being ‘‘dropped’’ from a balcony, another prisoner has come forward claiming he was transferred to another jail after a beating.

The revelations follow footage of organised fights between inmates video footage recorded the fights which was then uploaded online.

Inmates also appeared on video drinking alcohol and smoking being filmed on contraband cellphones and posted on social media.

Canterbury University criminologist Greg Newbold – a former remand prisoner at Mt Eden – described the present situation there as anarchic.

‘‘The monkeys are running the zoo. It’s a disgraceful situation. This is like a third-world country.’’

The latest figures show that, as at December 2014, there were 8641 inmates nationwide. Mt Eden was the country’s fullest prison.

Rimutaka, north of Wellington, had only 10 fewer prisoners than Mt Eden, and recorded the fourthhighest number of assault victims, with 54.

The third-fullest prison, Christchurch Men’s, recorded the second highest number, with 75.

Corrections noted the figures might include some prisoners who were attacked more than once. cannabis, and are claimed to have made weapons known as ‘‘shanks’’ from blades.

Davis said a practice existed in

Sixty-three of the prisoners assaulted at Mt Eden were there on remand, with five seriously hurt.

Remand prisoners are people whom the courts have ordered to be held in custody while they await trial. They are held separately from the main prison population in their own unit or wing as they await further hearings.

Corrections acting national commissioner Rachel Leota said Mt Eden was the country’s biggest remand prison, servicing the Auckland region.

The average prisoner stayed there for 28 days, with its management handling 30,000 prisoners a year.

Eighty per cent of its prisoners were there on remand, so it was ‘‘not unexpected’’ that it would record more assaults in that category, she said.

Rimutaka prison’s remand centre recorded no assaults on the jail called ‘‘dropping’’, where prisoners were ‘‘sized up by gangs’’ and ‘‘bashed up and dropped off the balconies on to the remand prisoners during the same period.

Newbold said remand units were naturally ‘‘volatile’’ as, with so many prisoners coming and going, it was hard to establish order.

Leota said reviews into the running of Mt Eden were under way and would address its assault numbers. ‘‘Any assault in prison is a concern. We have zero tolerance for assaults in prison but, unfortunately, they do occur at times.’’

Newbold said prison bashings should not be ‘‘inevitable’’ and he challenged the popular view that prisoners deserved the violence meted out behind bars.

‘‘Maybe one day it will be your son or daughter in prison, and then you will think differently.’’

Assaults at women’s prisons were rarer, with six recorded at Arohata and 38 at the Auckland Women’s Corrections Facility.

concrete below’’.

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