Guards say Field kept shielded

Phillip Field. Photo / Greg Bowker

Prison guards are upset Taito Phillip Field is getting special treatment and being kept shielded from other prisoners.

A senior guard contacted the Weekend Herald to say the disgraced former MP was not sent to the old Mt Eden Prison - known as "the Rock" - after his sentencing on corruption charges.

Field bypassed this regular process and was instead placed in the newer remand prison on the Mt Eden site which was "a much easier time".

The guard said Field "should have been put in the Rock like every other Tom, Dick and Harry".

He said Field, who was now clad in a regulation prison tracksuit, was in the prison because he could be kept segregated - unlike the old Mt Eden "where he would be taking his chances out in the yard with the other boys".

The guard said Field's special treatment continued yesterday, when he was moved to the Spring Hill prison in the Waikato, where there is a Pacific Island Focus Unit "which is not a real prison".

He said Field was looking good, "but so would you if you didn't have to do your time properly".