From te Whare Paremata:

The Chief Ombudsman is calling on the Department of Corrections to urgently fix a series of workplace culture and leadership issues that are preventing it from achieving lasting change.

Peter Boshier has released a new report, ‘Kia Whaitake-Making a Difference’, following repeated calls for improvements in the way prisoners are treated.

“I was also surprised to find during my investigation, that prisoners’ rights were not at the heart of decisions made at every level of the organisation.

But Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis has pushed back on some of the comments made by the Chief Ombudsman.

“Since 2017, Corrections has received from all the monitoring groups close to 3000 recommendations of which over 80% have been completed, the one’s they haven’t completed they’re still working on.

“So I just want to push back on any sort of notion that Corrections has ignored the recommendations that these groups have made.” says Minister Davis.

”I accept that the Department is attempting to overhaul its approach but progress has been too slow and the fair treatment and rights of prisoners have, unfortunately, been the collateral damage.” says Peter Boshier.

The catalyst for the Boshier’s investigation was the 2020-2021 riots at Waikeria Prison.

Other areas of concern for the Ombudsman included a lack of cultural competency and capability across the Department to work in partnership with Māori.

He is recommending that the Corrections Act 2004 and the Corrections Regulations 2005 are reviewed to make sure Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and relevant international human rights obligations such as the Mandela Rules, are given greater emphasis.

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