Human Rights and Prisons - Rethinking Crime and Punishment

Alongside the Ombudsmen‟s Office, there are a range of organisations to
whom prisoners can complain. These include: the Commissioner for Children,
the Health and Disability Commissioners, the Privacy Commissioner and the
Human Rights Commission.
In the year to 30 June 2010, the Human Rights Commission received 297
complaints and enquiries relating to prisons. The number of matters received
by the Commission has risen, on an annual basis, since 2006. The majority of
these approaches (around three quarters) are dealt with by the provision of
information, advice or referral to an appropriate agency or process.
Complaints that raised issues of discrimination, most commonly relate to:
disability, „race‟, and religious belief.
Corrections can also face investigation from other governmental units. For
example, in 2003, the State Services Commissioner commissioned a report
into the Canterbury Emergency Response Unit (Duffy, 2004). This report
raised a number of concerns about Departmental investigations of
inappropriate staff behaviour. Duffy found that management systems, policies
and procedures were sound; the problem was how the Unit operated in
practice. In response, the Department of Corrections has stated that it has
improved systems of quality assurance, audit and monitoring.
The Optional Protocol Mechanisms
Perhaps the most significant recent change to the inspection system has been
the March 2007 ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against
Torture (OPCAT). This Protocol provides further international and national
scrutiny over those detained, and the places they are held.
On an international level, there is a Sub-Committee (to the Committee on
Torture) of ten members elected by states that are party to the Protocol. This
sub-Committee will visit places of detention in each Party state and make
recommendations.
However, OPCAT relies principally on the work of „National Preventive
Mechanisms‟ (NPMs). These are bodies that will:
have independent and expert staff;
be able to carry out regular visits, without warning, to all places of
detention;
have full access to registers / other documents / detainees;
make recommendations aimed at strengthening protections or
improving treatment and conditions;
publish an annual report of their work (Owers, 2008).
The objective of these mechanisms is not to report on torture and inhuman or
degrading treatment, but to prevent it.
The Ombudsmen‟s Office is the NPM for prisons. Their preventive monitoring
will remain separate from complaints investigation work. This organisation,
106