KEY POINTS:
National Party corrections spokesman Simon Power today called for top-level resignations after it was revealed a prisoner had been attacked in the back of a van transporting him to court.
The Department of Corrections has confirmed yesterday's assault - just four months after the promise of an overhaul of prison transport following the murder of teenager Liam Ashley in the back of a prison van.
Mr Power said Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor and Corrections Department chief executive Barry Matthews should either resign or be sacked over the latest attack.
In the latest incident, a prisoner was attacked by four adult prison inmates while on a half hour drive from Auckland Remand Centre at Mt Eden to Waitakere District Court.
The victim suffered a suspected broken jaw from the beating.
The prisoner had reportedly asked to be segregated for his own protection.
Mr Power said Mr O'Connor had promised the Ashley family changes would be made. Mr Matthews had made similar assurances, he said.
Mr O'Connor had also rebutted previous calls for him to resign by saying he had a responsibility to stay on and oversee change. "From what I can see they have done absolutely nothing to ensure the Ashley tragedy is not repeated."
Mr Power said he was surprised the project team reviewing prisoner travel had not reported back - eight months after Liam Ashley's death.
"It's time heads rolled. The public has had enough of watching the horror stories coming out of our prisons," he said.
Mr O'Connor said today through a spokesman that he had called for a full report on the latest van attack.
Overhaul
He was also awaiting a report on the overhaul of prisoner transport in the wake of the Liam Ashley killing.
The spokesman said that report was expected "very soon", but he could not give a date.
Corrections union president Bevan Hanlon earlier told Radio New Zealand the prisoner had requested to be kept on his own because he feared for his safety.
"They put him in a compartment with four other prisoners, (but) when they arrived at the court house he had been quite severely beaten to the extent his jaw was being X-rayed to see if it was broken, his face was all swollen, it was quite a bad beating."
Corrections northern regional manager Warren Cummins said in a statement all the prisoners were adults and all were on segregation at their own request.
Mr Hanlon said segregation should mean the inmate travelled alone, but because so many prisoners requested to be kept on their own, Corrections had got into the habit of putting like-minded people together.
"The problem is I could be requesting segregation to you requesting segregation," Mr Hanlon said.
He said the union was supposed to assist the department with changes to transport procedure after the Liam Ashley case, but so far no meetings had been scheduled.
"That's what's so concerning about all of this. We're months down the track and there's been no changes," he said.
"All the promised reviews and work parties we were supposed to be participating in just haven't happened -- unfortunately that's just not uncommon in Corrections."
The department said the latest attack was being investigated by police.
- NZPA
