Multiplying cells: A tale of two prisons

Source: Radio New Zealand

A prison expansion is on such a fast track that it prompted officials to ask if compromises were being made.

Corrections is rushing to build two new high security units to cope with an unexpectedly rapid rise in the prison population nationwide since last year.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Prison was chosen as it had available land, official reports showed. The project was using a stripped-back design of no roofs between cell blocks, which was “untested” for operational, maintenance and amenity impacts.

This was to speed up to finish by next January.

“Speed of delivery will be the biggest driver,” Corrections told ministers.

A prison architecture expert called it a “band-aid” solution that could force inmates to be locked up for longer in bad weather.

Christine McCarthy of Victoria University had been reading the plans.

“They’re very clear; they are not intending to use this design again,” she said. “It’s kind of like, we have to do something, we don’t have any options.”

‘Less amenities’

Papers released under the Official Information Act showed officials last year suggested that ministers asked Corrections: “Have compromises been made in the shortened project development/design that create delivery risks or that impact on operational efficiency, adaptability, future costs, future investment requirements or create prisoner management risks?”

The government said it had been advised there would be no compromises on the highest standards of security and safety.

Corrections’ own business case said the new design was “seen to represent a compromise in amenity compared to the X-wing design” for Waikeria Prison’s much bigger, longer expansion.

The cells would be regular ones, but the shared spaces were changed. It might necessitate additional security measures.

“It has less amenities for prisoners… and is untested in terms of its ‘no roof’ design and the operational and maintenance impacts that may result from that.”

On the flip side of the Hawke’s Bay rush, Christchurch Men’s Prison’s expansion – again, much bigger and longer-term – had been going so slowly by last July that Treasury officials held it up as a case study in “significant lag between funding and action”.

‘Rapid unexpected’ growth exacerbates risks

Prisoner numbers topped a record 11,000 in January and were forecast to reach more than 14,000 in a decade. Over 40 percent of inmates were on remand awaiting a court hearing or sentencing.

Risky prisoners were having to be held in lower security, “increasing operating costs and risks”.

Just months after the government’s 2024 long-term prison plan was completed, it was already outdated, while not even factoring in more muster rises from the government’s new tough-on-crime policies and law changes.

“Rapid unexpected actual and projected growth means capacity limits may be exceeded by 2027, exacerbating operational and security risks,” said a report last July to Chris Bishop’s new Infrastructure and Investment Ministers Group, released to RNZ.

The prison population is now projected by next June to be 1853 higher than the 2024 projections. In response, the government hatched the Accelerated Capacity Programme or ACP mid-year.

“Our work to restore law and order is paying off,” said Mitchell in November, announcing ACP’s cornerstone, the expansion by 316 beds at Hawke’s Bay.

Corrections told RNZ it had accelerated the project “while still retaining checks and safeguards”.

‘Complete commitment to a compromised building’

McCarthy said the department was just reacting to the fact that double-bunking everywhere and reopening old facilities could not cope with a bed shortfall forecast to peak in 2027-29.

“This is a smart way in the situation that has been created, but it’s not going to be the last time this happens.

“This is really quite a fundamental question … can we build our way out of this? So that’s what’s interesting here: there’s a complete commitment to a compromised building.”

The UK, by contrast, said no, it cost too much to keep expanding prisons, and was looking for alternatives, she said.

Reports showed the UK was adding cells https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prison-building-boom-to-make-streets-safer but was also looking at the likes of early release for good behaviour amid “a broader overhaul of sentencing policies aimed at cutting the number of inmates before cells run out”, according to the New York Times.

Labour said National talked tough but could not deliver, with prison projects “stalled in Christchurch and rushed planning in Hawke’s Bay”.

‘Without any compromises to … safety and security’

Corrections told RNZ changes to the Hawke’s Bay design were “to allow for faster delivery without any compromises to the safety and security of the facility”.

The papers released under the Official Information Act revealed how the department planned to speed things up:

• to place the tender on 1 July, weeks before Cabinet approval
• finalise the business case weeks after the tender
• leave out the usual “Gateway” review before seeking Cabinet approval
• Cabinet sign-off was on 18 August.

The speed of this prompted officials to suggest in July 2025 that Bishop’s ministerial group ask, “Why was the RFP [tender] released prior to Cabinet approval? How will the resulting risks with the market be managed?”

And: “What plans does Corrections have to manage the risks of not undertaking independent assurance of the project at an early stage, and how will any adverse findings of the proposed Gateway review in early October be managed?”

Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell told RNZ the Gateway review “commended the department for active efforts to manage all risks”.

He supported the approach, he said in a statement.

“My expectation is that the new units … will meet the highest standards in safety and security, and I have been advised there will be no compromises on that.”

Corrections said it was saving four to six months on an otherwise 22-month build.

The fast track had built-in “off-ramps” if an affordable solution could not be found.

Corrections said it got independent assurance and review, including the cost estimates and a risk estimate, from industry experts.

Builder Naylor Love won the job on 31 October. The expansion is being funded from the department’s baseline. The cost was blanked out of reports.

Double bunking: ‘They’re going to get angry’

Corrections told RNZ the design had less internal communal space but an open-air courtyard instead. It had less admin space for staff, but there was space for that in other parts of the prison.

It was more efficient and better for keeping tabs on prisoners than a courtyard design.

The 160 new cells will nearly all have double-bunking. Squeezing inmates in that way was regularly widely criticised, and New Zealand is a signatory to a convention against it.

Howard League prison reformer Cosmo Jeffrey said the crowding would cost lives.

“So you can’t even walk around each other without banging into each other,” said Jeffrey.

“It’s like, what do they think is going to happen… locking people up like that? Obviously, they’re going to get angry.”

There were three double-bunk deaths at Mt Eden prison last year. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/581339/three-double-bunk-deaths-at-mt-eden-prison-in-a-year

‘Significant lags’

At Christchurch Men’s Prison, earthworks had begun.

The privately operated prison expansion is a $1.5-billion-plus four-phase project that aims to open its first new beds in 2029, and others from 2032.

Jeffrey said some inmates had already been moved out to make way for the expansion.

“This guy’s waited four years to get on the rehabilitation programme, and with 24 hours’ notice, he gets shunted down to Dunedin.

“To put it mildly, he’s heartbroken.”

Another inmate he knew had just started a prison job at Christchurch, then been shifted south.

Corrections said the project should sign up a builder in July. Three groups were shortlisted last year – one had a private US prison operator, Honeywell, on board, and another was multinational Serco that already ran Auckland South prison.

Treasury told ministers last year that the 15 months or so it was taking between Budget 2025 funding and signing the contract had put Christchurch Men’s into a group of two major projects – another was a mental health build – for a time lag of over a year.

It suggested the ministers shared “lessons” from the lag.

“Billions in new Crown funding are being committed each year, but we are seeing significant lags between Budget decisions, signing contracts, and commencing delivery and construction activity,” the report for the June 2025 quarter said, looking ahead to Budget 2026 bids.

Mitchell told RNZ he had been assured Christchurch Men’s was on schedule. It was very different from Hawke’s Bay and should not be compared, he said.

Hawke’s Bay’s existing high-security units overheated in summer, sparking a fix-it project last year.

Corrections said when it planned prisons, it took into account basing prisoners close to family where it could, the security level of prisoners, as well as the services they required.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand