Inquiry into prisons’ slow rate of reform

The Chief Ombudsman is launching an investigation into how the Department of Corrections has responded to repeated calls for reforms to improve conditions for prisoners.

Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier said he had been seeing the same issues being raised again and again when it came to prisoner welfare and rehabilitation.

High-profile cases included the treatment of Mihi Bassett and Karma Cripps – they were gassed in their cells and forced to perform humiliating rituals to be fed – and more recently, the multiple instances of pregnant prisoners being handcuffed to hospital beds before, during and after labour.

‘‘I want to find out why problems continue to exist . . . and how the department is genuinely taking action to address these,’’ Boshier said.

The investigation will look at what the Department of Corrections has done to address the treatment and conditions of inmates in all correctional facilities, and the opportunities for constructive activity, such as education, employment, rehabilitation and reintegration programmes.

It would look at performance monitoring and review processes, including complaints management, oversight of segregation orders, use of force reviews, and other operational or incident reviews. It was in the initial planning stage and would be complete by mid to late 2022.

Boshier said that he had not seen significant and sustained improvements to prisoners’ welfare and rehabilitation.

Systematic investigations like this were often launched when long-standing issues needed looking at and needed to be unravelled, Boshier said.

‘‘We often have practices because we have done it that way but that does not mean it is any longer appropriate or modern.’’

It was disheartening to see his office’s recommendations not being put in place and disappointing when they were accepted but on a return visit, there was no ‘‘demonstrable uptake’’.

Boshier notified the chief executive of Corrections, Jeremy Lightfoot, about the investigation last week.

Boshier believed that there was a wish for change from Corrections’ leadership but he had to get that ‘‘uniform across the country’’, he said.

‘‘It is not clear to me why it is so hard to get traction in some parts of Corrections and some prisons when others are exemplars of good practice.’’