Human Rights and Prisons - Rethinking Crime and Punishment

days become more difficult to organise because staff are too busy with
other tasks; prisoners are transferred across regions for logistical
reasons, causing massive disruption to their families trying to negotiate
visits (as well as impacting on other important activities such as any
sentence planning, or access to health care or programmes);
The right to life and security of person can also be tested as
overcrowding amplifies stress levels for prisoners and officers alike.
Longer periods of lock down, together with increases in prisoner
numbers, are related to higher incidences of prisoner depression and
anxiety, as well as increased disturbances and attacks – including fatal
attacks – against prisoners and staff. Reflecting on the concerns posed
by double-bunking to safety in prisons, the Law and Order Committee
(2009) noted that „We were told that staff will receive an extra three
days training on volatile situations and that pepper spray, spit-masks,
and stab-proof vests will be available when necessary‟.
Overcrowding impacts heavily, therefore, on the well-being of prisoners and
officers alike. As the Department of Corrections (2008) put it, between 2005-
2007, the Department operated under high pressure, with a significant
degradation of services. During this period, there were also times when the
Department operated „at a high risk of failure, and a significant negative
impact on staff‟ (ibid: 23).
Staff have been placed under significant stress in recent years. In response
to rising prisoner populations, the Department has undertaken a major
recruitment initiative. In 2008, over 40% of frontline Corrections Officers had
less than two years experience (Department of Corrections, 2008); in 2009,
this had reduced to 29% of staff (Department of Corrections, 2009c). This
new workforce has placed pressure on experienced staff who mentor and
train new officers.
In summary, as Lord Chief Justice Woolf, the investigator of the Strangeways
riot in England stated, overcrowding „debilitates the whole system‟ (cited in
Taylor, Anthony, 2008:69). Given such conditions, the UN Committee Against
Torture (2009:9) has recently recommended that the NZ State „should
undertake measures to reduce overcrowding, including consideration of
noncustodial forms of detention in line with the United Nations Standard
Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures (The Tokyo Rules)‟.
3.5 Securing Rights at the Operational Level
Thus far, it is made apparent that cultures of penal populism, as well as
burgeoning prisoner numbers, can lead to struggles to maintain positive
rights-based practices for prisoners and prison staff. These issues are
generally directed from outside the penal estate – as, for example, the prison
service cannot control the number of people they receive. However, it is also
clear that rights standards can be undermined within the prison environment.
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