Human Rights and Prisons - Rethinking Crime and Punishment

9. Protection Measures
This section details the range of protection measures afforded to prisoners
and staff – via information systems, disciplinary procedures, and complaints
and inspection systems.
9.1 Provision of Information
Law and policy framework
The Corrections Act 2004 (s6(1)(f)) states that the provision of information
about rules, obligations and entitlements is a central principle guiding the
corrections system. At induction, new prisoners are to be given written
information on the operation/rules of the prison and prisoner entitlements.
The Prison Sevice Operations Manual (I.04) sets out that prisoners must be
informed of their obligations, rights and privileges, and service access, in a
way they can understand. Prisoners who are citizens of another country
should be advised that they are afforded access to their consular
representative.
With regards to transfers, prisoners must be informed of the transfer, including
destination, at least a week in advance. They must also be given reasonable
opportunity to inform a family member. There are exceptions to these rules
on the grounds of safety, security and even „to allow for the effective
management of the national prisoner muster‟ (Corrections Act, s55(2)(d)). If
this occurs, a prisoner must be allowed one free phone call, on arrival at the
new prison, to advise family members. The reasons for transfer must be
given if a prisoner requests that information, in writing within a month of
transfer. Relevant policies are contained within PSOM (M.01-M.04,
Movements).
Issues
Access to information has, historically, been an issue within the prisons. The
Ministerial Committee of Inquiry into the Prisons System (1989:s3.5) showed
that prisoners commonly complained that there was „uncertainty and
inconsistency of prison life; uncertainty as to their rights and obligations and
inconsistency in the interpretation and enforcement of the rules governing
them in different prisons‟.
The issue of information access was improved with the introduction of
information kiosks that allow prisoners to check rules themselves. Following
their introduction, the Ombudsmen‟s Office (2005:61) stated that the system
„appears excellent‟. However, more recently, concerns have been raised
about information access, principally as many kiosks have been damaged or
broken. Further follow-up research on access to, and timeliness of,
information would be useful.
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