KEY POINTS:
A Hawke's Bay Prison inmate was able to escape in a prison vehicle because the keys had been left in the ignition, it has been revealed.
An investigation also showed Raniera Harris's March escape was not noticed for more than an hour and hourly muster checks had not been done for days.
Harris fled while on community-based gardening work in suburban Taradale on March 20.
His supervising Corrections officer's only reliable means of communication, his personal cellphone, was in the vehicle Harris took, according to an internal report obtained by The Dominion Post newspaper under the Official Information Act.
Harris, 19, was on the run for a day and a half.
The report showed prison staff had recorded that the supervisor had made his hourly muster checks by radio - but the supervisor's records showed his radio calls were not answered.
Often the supervisor found it more reliable to use his personal cellphone to make the reports, but because Harris had driven away with it, he was not even able to do that.
Harris found the supervisor's vehicle with its keys still in the ignition at 10.30am and drove away. On the front seat were the supervisor's fleet link radio, his paperwork and his cellphone.
The escape was not noticed until 11.50am, when the prison was advised Harris had escaped and police were notified.
He was recaptured the following day but not before he had committed a burglary.
The report found that the supervisor had failed to secure his keys to his key chain, and that neither he nor the prison were making their hourly muster check communications as required.
The supervisor's work forms, also left on the vehicle's front seat, showed that he was unable to contact the prison each hour, yet the prison staff were recording that he had made contact and everything was in order.
The Corrections officer has been given a final warning and changes have been made to the prison's communication systems, the report said.
- NZPA
