Prison failures revealed after escape

Failure to carry out routine cell checks and ignoring a warning of a pending escape led to a Manawatu Prison inmate fleeing with a head start of eight to nine hours, it is understood.

Kerry Jason Taylor escaped from the prison late on Sunday night and is still on the loose.

Prison staff are required to do "body checks" on prisoners every hour, which involves viewing the prisoner through their cell window.

"You have to look into the cell. If you can't see into the cell you've got to get permission to open the door.

"We used to have to count them but the prisoners complained about getting woken up every hour," Corrections Association national president Bevan Hanlon said yesterday.

Staff are also required to do hourly perimeter patrols, which involves checking fences, gates, and the grounds, to ensure the facility is secure.

However, Mr Hanlon said that staff shortages often meant the checks were not carried out.

He said staff at Manawatu Prison had a 70 per cent turnover rate last year and morale among staff was low.

A report that Corrections issued after the last two prisoners escaped from the prison in 2002 said staff inexperience was one contributing factor to the mistake.

"The turnover of staff leads to an issue of inexperience and unfortunately it's an issue they're (Corrections Department) going to have for a long time.

"Management are making decisions that are causing people to leave."

It is understood Taylor was rated as a maximum security inmate but the Corrections Department did not send him to Auckland Prison, which is New Zealand's only maximum-security prison for men.

Instead he was kept in Manawatu Prison which is a medium-security facility, despite Detective Steve Braybrook, who is heading the hunt for Taylor, saying he has a tendency to use violence.

"He has used firearms before on several occasions.

"He's dangerous and is not afraid to hurt other people to achieve whatever his aims are."

Mr Braybrook said in his fifth day on the run from police, Taylor would be getting paranoid and not trusting anybody.

Security footage shows Taylor escaped from the prison at 11.15pm on Sunday but police were not alerted until 8.30am next morning.

In a statement yesterday, Corrections Department acting regional manager Ian Taylor said preliminary investigations show that staff spoke to the prisoner about 10.15pm Sunday, and he escaped from the prison "around midnight".

"Prison staff discovered the escape at 8.30am the following morning and immediately notified police."

Taylor is due in court next week to face further charges and police said yesterday they had contacted the people involved in the case.

"The people that are involved have been made aware, we did that first thing Monday.

"Their safety has being considered and at this stage everything is okay."

He said anyone who has seen Taylor or knows where he is should contact police and will be treated with the "utmost confidence".

- NZPA