1News can reveal the Department of Corrections considered declaring an emergency at two of its largest prisons just two months ago which could have seen the army brought in to help with staffing shortages.
It comes as the department launches a multi million-dollar recruitment campaign in a bid to attract more frontline officers.
The campaign includes new television ads at a cost of $4 million which has shocked Corrections officers currently in pay negotiations with the department.
Billboards and other social media advertisement costing an extra $2 million, while 24 recruitment staff adds $1.7million.
It brings the total advertising budget for Corrections to around $8 million this year.
Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis said the figure wasn’t surprising.
“No, I think that's what the market is at this stage,” Davis said.
Corrections Association President, Floyd du Plessis, said he was shocked.
Leading the union for prison officers he said they were currently in pay negotiations with the department.
“We've been told that there's no money able to be put aside to retain staff, there's no money able to be put aside to recruit staff,” he said.
He said prison officers were fatigued after battling through the Covid-19 pandemic, and the large spend was disappointing.
“It absolutely is an insult,” he said.
Corrections’ National Deputy Commissioner, Leigh Marsh, said he disagreed and defended the spend.
“I don't think it's an insult to them at all,” Marsh said.
“These are extraordinary times and we are really in a difficult situation with our staffing,” he said.
To say the situation is “difficult” may be an understatement.
Using the Official Information Act, 1News has discovered that in July Corrections mobilised its national coordination centre to respond.
In August it warned the department needed 4000 officers to fully staff its 18 prisons across the country, but were 1000 short.
By 31 August it expected to be “operating with 71.5%” of full-time employees as more staff were expected to leave.
National’s Corrections spokesperson, Simon O’Connor, said the situation was concerning.
“Staff morale is low, they are leaving in droves, the prisoners don't get their fundamental human rights and we're also seeing violence in prisons and attacks in prisons because of fewer staff,” O’Connor said.
Staffing levels at Mt Eden and Springhill prisons were also deemed "unsustainable" by Corrections.
On August 9, according to official documents, Corrections' Chief Executive Jeremy Lightfoot considered declaring a prison emergency at the two sites.
Such a move would allow the department to request assistance from the New Zealand Defence Force.
In the end he decided against it.
Leigh Marsh addressed the issue when speaking with 1News.
“At no point had we lost control of our prisons and at no point was there immediate risk to injury, life, or the public,” he said.
But Floyd du Plessis claims the association backed the idea.
“We have on numerous occasions raised with corrections and made it clear that from our perspective we are in a staffing crisis and this is an emergency,” du Plessis said.
“We feel that there might be political reasons that they don't want to declare a staffing emergency at this point because it won't look good.”
Kelvin Davis agreed with the position taken by the department.
“Corrections has managed the situation,” he said.
Corrections say applications have now gone from a handful to almost 20 a day since the recruitment campaign began, with around 270 live applications.
But the union warns it takes three months to train people before they can work inside the wire, so there’s a long way yet before staffing gaps will be filled.
One of the issues at the heart of this is the impact on prisoners.
1News has previously reported concerns raised by the Chief Human Rights Commissioner as thousands of prisoners have gone more than a year without face-to-face visits with family.
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