Innocent until proven guilty often means 22 hours locked in a cell
When the facility was inspected in October 2024, 70 percent of people were 'remand accused' prisoners – those yet to be determined guilty (or not) of any crime. A quarter were 'remand convicted'. Though found guilty of a crime, these people were yet to be sentenced and might not be given a prison sentence.
Most were locked in their cells for 22 hours a day. The United Nations' Mandela Rules define solitary as 'the confinement of prisoners for 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human contact'. Fifteen consecutive days of solitary confinement is defined as 'prolonged', and prohibited under these rules.
Spending such long hours in a cell each day severely limits a prisoner's ability to participate in activities such as training, education, and cultural activities – though at Mount Eden most programmes that ceased during Covid-19 have not been reinstated. This is despite the Government's commitment to provide remand prisoners with reintegration and rehabilitation support to 'turn their lives around'.
Consequently, the prisoners were 'bored, stressed and frustrated' and had 'little to do except watch television'. This caused tension among prisoners, some of whom also experienced feelings of isolation and struggled with depression, anxiety, and poor mental health.
When prisoners were unlocked, they understandably prioritised phoning their families and exercising, despite the exercise yards having limited equipment and 'no green spaces or views of grass or trees due to the design of the site'. This meant that case managers, education tutors, programme facilitators, and mental health staff found it difficult to access them during the two hours prisoners had outside of their cells.
Cell hygiene was another problem in some units because prisoners had no cleaning products for several weeks, including a limited availability of toilet brushes, paper towels, and disinfectant.
Disabled prisoners found cleaning their cells difficult, so 'rubbish remained in their cells leading to unclean living conditions'. Showering could also be a problem. The report records two prisoners unable to shower for weeks – one because staff would not provide the plastic he needed to cover his legs while showering, and the other 'could not stand up for long enough'.
Some units had no disability cells, and there was a lack of mobility equipment. Two older prisoners told the inspectors: 'They received little in the way of care and support. […] they spent most of their time in their cells because every time they wanted to leave, staff had to find a wheelchair as there were none in the unit. […] this meant they were unable to leave their cells during unlock and were therefore unable to make telephone calls to their lawyers or family/whānau.' When the matter was raised with the facility's assistant health centre manager, the inspectors were shown six brand-new wheelchairs, still in their packaging, in the health storage room.
It is not clear from the report how many prisoners were double-bunked and how many were in single cells and alone for 22 hours a day. Of those who shared a cell, some found this positive, but most 'found it stressful or exhausting'.
A reason for this is likely the difficulty of contacting staff when problems arose because help was not guaranteed. One awful instance illustrates the point. A new prisoner tried to contact staff numerous times via his cell's intercom because his cellmate was threatening him. He asked prison staff to be moved, but instead they said they would deal with it in the morning, leaving the prisoner to be sexually assaulted and attacked several times overnight.
To exacerbate matters, the prison is short of its full complement of custodial staff, with only 85 percent of positions filled. This means the prison is down 76.8 full-time equivalent custodial officers. Some 63 percent of staff have less than two years' experience at the prison. Staff shortages can encourage high lock-ups (restricting inmates to their cells) as a way to manage prisoners. As most staff will not have worked in a pre-Covid prison (when prisoners spent less time locked up), there is a danger that a culture of high lock-up becomes entrenched.
This is important to confront because, as the inspectorate report so thoroughly documents, there are multiple adverse consequences when prisoners are locked in a cell 22 hours a day. Its apparent normalisation in a New Zealand prison is alarming. That we allow this as the practice for those presumed innocent is additionally heartbreaking.
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