Seclusion and restraint practices are used too often and for too long in prisons and other facilities, with usage on women, Māori and Pasifika disproportionately high, a Human Rights Commission report has found.
Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt told TVNZ1's Breakfast some of Aotearoa’s most vulnerable people are being subjected to what it calls "serious and disappointing" detention methods and is calling for change.
The report is a follow up of a highly critical 2017 review of seclusion and restraint practices in New Zealand also published by the Commission.
“Seclusion and restraint are used too often, for too long, often without a convincing justification and more frequently against Māori and Pacific Peoples,” Hunt said.
“It has a damaging physiological effect and psychological, there’s no question about that, and particularly on children and disabled people, there’s overwhelming evidence and it’s also known that solitary confinement can amount to the definition of torture, cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.”
In the second half of 2019, a total of 76 children and young people aged 14 to 18 years old were placed in secure units of their facilities on 298 occasions, spending anywhere between a few hours and 20 days.
In total, these children spent 815 days in isolation in Youth Justice facilities, a huge increase from the 54 children and young people who spent a total of 307 days in secure units during six months in 2016. Almost 55 per cent (54.7 per cent) of these children identified as New Zealand Māori.
In mental health, the report found that there was persistant use of seclusion, disproportionately on Māori and Pacific patients.
"Between 2016/17, when the initial review took place and 2018/19, the average number of seclusion events per person rose from 2.12 to 2.86 seclusion events per person,” report author Dr Sharon Shalev wrote.
“On a positive note, the average length of seclusion events slightly reduced, but remained over two days.”
There were seclusion stays that were significantly longer, with one man of Pacific descent spending 10 days in seclusion in one forensic unit, while two Māori men spent seven and 14 days each in one acute inpatient psychiatric unit.
The report found women in prison were segregated at a far higher rate than men, with 255 instances for every 100 female prisoners, compared to 147 instances per every 100 male prisoners.
Māori women were also segregated for longer and at a far higher rate than other women, making up 78 per cent of all stays in management units, the most restrictive form of segregation, in 2019.
They were also segregated for longer than European or Pacific women.
Prisons had seen a substantial increase in the use of restraints, predominately handcuffs, from 423 over a six-month period in 2016, to 1488 over 12 months in 2019.
In Health and Disability facilities in the six months to March 2020, Māori made up 51 per cent of the total number of people secluded.
Over a period of six months in the same facilities, restraints were used 358 times.
Prone restrains, where a person was held face down on the floor or another surface were used 114 times, including several very lengthy holds, for over 24 hours (1463 minutes) in one case, 290, 125 and 100 minutes in others.
“The overall picture, however, is disappointing and many of the issues highlighted in my 2017 report have not been addressed” Shalev said.
“Too many people continue to be held for too long in sparsely furnished rooms and cells, with limited access to fresh air and exercise, and with little access to meaningful human contact.”
The report recommended the end of secure care rooms for children and young people while reducing both the use and length of seclusion and restraint.
It also recommended that agencies explore the potential racial and gender bias in decision making regarding seclusion and segregation.
Other recommendations included:
· Improve material conditions and access to meaningful human contact and activities in seclusion/segregation.
· Provide therapeutic environments for distressed individuals and seek alternatives to seclusion and restraint for them.
· Decommission facilities which are not fit for purpose.
· Gather good quality and comprehensive data to monitor effective implementation of these recommendations.
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