“When we became Government I was confronted as the new Corrections Minister with a prison population that was bursting at the seams, facing choices around triple bunking and beds in hallways.
“Since then, we have safely reduced the prison population to manageable levels. But while doing that, we have continued to lock up our most violent and dangerous criminals.
“This has resulted in a far higher proportion of gang members in prison. Combined with a rise in prisoners experiencing more mental health and addiction issues, it has led to a more volatile environment for Corrections officers to manage,” Davis said.
Davis praised the fact that “serious assaults on staff have remained relatively static since 2017″.
Serious assaults have risen from 14 to 19 - an increase of about a third.
“Less serious and ‘no injury’ assaults have risen, this can be somewhat attributed to a change in reporting,” Davis said.
Prisoner-to-staff assaults classed as less serious rose from 189 in 2017 to 306 in 2022, while injury prisoner-on-staff assaults rose from 294 to 492.
“New Zealand’s prisons have become more violent after five years of Labour,” said Mitchell.
He said Davis was making the problem worse by restricting access to pepper spray in certain situations. That is despite a Facebook post from 2015 from Davis, then in opposition, in which he said pepper spray “would have been effective” in stopping attacks and “keeping guards safe”.
“In 2015, Kelvin Davis, Labour’s Corrections spokesperson, criticised the National government for not giving corrections officers the tools they needed to protect themselves, like pepper spray,” Mitchell said.
“However, Minister Davis made it harder for Corrections officers to deploy pepper spray late last year – amending regulations requiring officers to either seek managerial approval or make a detailed values assessment before using it,” he said.
Davis admitted to lobbying for access to pepper spray when he was an opposition MP.
He said the changes made in Government were different and that they related to “planned” use, rather than spontaneous use in instances in which staff might need to use pepper spray to defend themselves.
“The legislation being referred to was specific to pepper spray as part of a planned use of force, rather than spontaneous.
“This relates to the use of pepper spray methods such as ‘cell buster’, rather than personal canisters which are used more in spontaneous situations.
“These changes have been in place for almost a year and have not made it harder for staff to use this tactical response. Regardless, I expect staff to only use pepper spray when it is necessary and reasonable. I expect that with any use of force,” Davis said.
Mitchell said Davis was “a Minister who is quite happy to talk the talk when it suits, but has dismally failed to walk the walk”.
“After five years on the job, prisons are less safe under Mr Davis, and officers have less scope to defend themselves against violent attacks because of his actions,” he said.
Mitchell said it was starting to show in Corrections’ headcount. The Government is currently recruiting, after finding it difficult to staff prisons.
“It is little wonder that nobody wants to work for Corrections when it is clear that the Government is not behind frontline staff,” Mitchell said.
