Staff shortages in New Zealand prisons are at crisis point, the Corrections Association says.
Speaking to Breakfast this morning, the association's secretary Mark Duncan said for the amount of staff they have working, the prisons are at capacity.
"Currently at the moment we just do not have the staff to be able to house the prisoners in a safe manner where both the prisoners and the staff are working inside."
He said he doesn't think the severity of the problem has been acknowledged by the Department of Corrections.
"We have a huge issue in recruiting and retaining current staff, we've got more staff that are walking out the gate every day then what we do have staff starting in the service."
Asked what it's like to work as a Corrections officer, Duncan said members at the moment are facing a "huge" amount of pressure in regards to violence and aggression.
He said in the last few years there has been a significant number of staff assaulted, which puts further pressure on workers.
"They're dealing with both physical and mental well-being issues in regards to these assaults. We've got staff that are off recovering from assaults that just adds to the availability of staffing when we are already short of staff."
"It's a challenging environment to work in and a lot of the general public won't understand what it's like to work behind the wire and the pressures that come with that."
Duncan also said a consequence of staff shortages is that inmates aren't getting as much time out of their cells as they usually would.
"They're not getting the opportunity to have visits with family as much, or phone calls as much as what they normally would have.
"Again, this just increases the volatility within a prison."
He said if staff were paid more, they would be able to recruit more people and be able to retain them.
"They need to be able to feel that they are valued and currently at the moment, our members that work inside the wire, they do not feel valued."
Corrections responds
Last year the department embarked on a near $4 million marketing campaign seeking new officers.
Ads calling for applicants were seen across TV, online, social media, billboards, bus stops and on street posters.
National commissioner Leigh Marsh told 1News today it "fully acknowledged" the pressure placed on staff due to the "ongoing challenges" with staffing levels.
"We have been making a concerted effort to recruit, retain and train."
He said more than 3800 applications for new Corrections officers had been received since October last year.
Marsh said the department had "started to turn a corner" in terms of recruitment, after "seeing more Corrections officers leave than we could recruit" when it started its campaign.
"The number of new recruits exceeds the number of people leaving more recently, and we are working to make sure this continues," he said.
Marsh pointed out capacity across the entire prison network as at April 19 was 9025 beds. With 8546 prisoners in custody, there was 479 vacant beds.
"Our regular operational capacity across the entire prison network is 9,561 beds. Our maximum operational capacity is 11,158 beds," he explained.
Addressing Duncan's comments about assaults on staff, Marsh said Corrections hadn't "seen a significant rise in prisoner on staff assaults in recent years".
"The reality is the threat of violence is something we cannot eliminate entirely, but we are constantly working to ensure our prisons provide the safest environment possible for staff and prisoners."
SHARE ME