Corrections Association President Beven Hanlon says that our members are both insulted and perplexed by comments made by the Corrections CEO Barry Mattews on Wednesday morning and repeated in the house on Friday by Paul Swain that there is no muster crisis.

Beven said “Corrections Officers across the country have been going the extra mile with working massive amounts of over time and working in substandard conditions at courts just to ensure inmates are housed in custody. To have both these high ranking Prison representatives taking it for granted was insulting to say the least.”

The perplexing part is that so many inmates are being held in police cells and court cells in fact as recently as Friday night the Public Prison Service opened the 4th court to hold inmates in Auckland. This is on top of a number of other courts across the country being used to hold inmates.

Beven went on to say “PPS has been flying staff to work in Auckland courts from as far away as Christchurch. These staff are being worked to the bone with 12 hour shifts and this causes great concern not just for our member’s safety but also the public safety. Working long shifts in substandard conditions is dangerous and we are likely to see an increase in incidents.”

“Remember there have been 6 inmates escape from court cells so far this year and the work load just keeps getting added by PPS. All we can do is hope that PPS opens its eye and come to talk to us about how to deal with this problem.”

This media release has been authorized by Beven Hanlon
National President of the Corrections Association of New Zealand
Mob. 027 4380 442
Email: bjandbev@xtra.co.nz