Source: Radio New Zealand
The Department of Corrections told RNZ it couldn’t reveal the number of its medical staff who have been assaulted by inmates. 123RF
The main nursing union says violence against prison healthcare workers is flying under the radar.
The Department of Corrections told RNZ it couldn’t reveal the number of its medical staff who have been assaulted by inmates, because information about the specific roles of prison staff attacked at work was held on individual files and not readily retrievable.
However, it said a manual scan of its files showed that most assaults in prisons were against officers, and a small proportion are against medical staff, which aligned with anecdotal reports from frontline leaders.
The Nurses Organisation’s corrections spokesperson, Michael Pye, said many prison nurses didn’t report assaults and considered violence part of their job.
“One because it’s part of the job and two because the systems that allow you to do report it are quite time consuming in terms of getting on and doing the job and three there’s a slight sense of scepticism that nothing is going to change,” he said.
Pye, who is also a prison nurse, said that anecdotally assaults against Corrections medical employees were up.
“We’ve had serious injuries to the head and face, requiring ongoing treatment. People have been lashed out at, people have been spat on and so on.”
Pye said the NZNO and Corrections were establishing a joint working party to look at violence and aggression against prison healthcare staff.
Corrections’ Commissioner Custodial Services Leigh Marsh said serious assaults represented a small proportion of the total assaults against its staff, but any assault was “unacceptable”.
“In recent years, we have placed an increased importance on staff recording prisoner on staff assaults, regardless of whether they result in injury.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
