Hawke’s Bay prison attacks: Four Corrections staff members injured on one day

Four staff members were injured in two separate assaults at Hawke’s Bay Regional Prison on Sunday. Photo / Paul Taylor

Four Hawke’s Bay Regional Prison staff members were injured in two separate assaults at the prison on Sunday.

In the first incident, it’s alleged a prisoner used a sandwich press to assault a Corrections officer and threw hot water at three staff members.

Deputy Commissioner for Men’s Prisons Neil Beales told Hawke’s Bay Today pepper spray was used to control the situation, and extra staff responded immediately.

Three staff were taken off-site for medical attention, but none required overnight hospitalisation and there were no serious injuries.

Sugar may have been mixed with the hot water thrown at staff members as a tactic to intensify burns and make the liquid stick to the skin.

Allan Whitley, from the union that represents people working in prisons, Corrections Association of New Zealand (Canz), told Hawke’s Bay Today staff on site were “fairly certain that they saw the prisoner putting sugar in the hot water”.

Corrections said it had not yet confirmed that detail, and it would form part of the investigation.

A second, unrelated incident happened in another part of the prison the same day.

A prisoner punched a staff member, who was also assessed off-site and did not suffer serious injuries.

Police had been notified of both incidents, and internal misconduct charges were under way.

Beales said there were some unplanned staff absences on Sunday, but the prison still had the right number of staff in both its units to go about its daily routines, including the unlocking of prisoners.

Whitley claimed while one of the units involved had adequate staffing, the other did not.

He said the prison was seven staff short overall on the day, and that although the volatile nature of the prison environment means some incidents may not be preventable, Corrections should take “every reasonable step to try to prevent it”.

Whitley said he had contacted the prison director requesting a review of unsecured cooking equipment in high-security areas, including sandwich presses.

“If we don’t get a response, we will be doing a provisional improvement for notice to have it removed,” he said.

A Corrections spokesperson told Hawke’s Bay Today that a health and safety review of unsecured kitchen appliances will be carried out by the Health and Safety advisor and the High Security manager.

“The general manager of the prison will then make decisions on any next steps, including if any items should be removed,” they said.

Beales said violence in prison is not tolerated, and anyone who displays such behaviour will be held to account, including “potentially facing criminal charges.”

He said prisons can be volatile environments, with the vast majority of prisoners having violent criminal histories or mental health and substance abuse issues.

“The reality is the threat of violence is something we cannot eliminate entirely, but we do everything possible to minimise this risk.

“We have invested significantly in training and tools to keep our staff safe. This includes tactical skills, such as de-escalation, through to the provision of stab-resistant body armour, on body cameras and the expanded deployment of pepper spray.”