Waikeria Prison located near Te Awamutu. Photo / Dean Purcell
Waikeria Prison located near Te Awamutu. Photo / Dean Purcell
Dozens of inmates have escaped from prisons in recent years, including two who were on the run for months, and many have tried but failed.
There were 30 escapes in the last five years and 29 attempted escapes, documents released to the Herald under the Official Information Act reveal.
Twoescapees spent more than 70 days on the run and another man who escaped was later charged with raping a woman while he was out of prison.
However most inmates were quickly apprehended on the day they made a bid for freedom.
Last year Te Ariki Poulgrain, who was among a group of three prisoners who assaulted notorious double-killer Graeme Burton at Auckland's Paremoremo Prison, was on the run for more than 10 weeks after escaping from a central Auckland medical facility.
Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis said no escape from prison is acceptable, but when they do occur he expects Corrections to do a full review and to make whatever changes necessary to reduce the chance of it happening again.
"Most escapes happen while prisoners are being escorted outside of the prison such as to medical appointments, but despite this almost all of these escorts happen without incident."
Davis said it was reality that some people in prison would always try to escape and it was Corrections' job to minimise this risk as much as possible.
Corrections chief custodial officer Neil Beales said any time a prisoner is required to be escorted outside of a prison their focus is on safety, security and minimising risk to the public, our staff and prisoners.
"Every year we carry out tens of thousands of escorts between prisons, courts, medical facilities and rehabilitation providers. The overwhelming majority of escorts occur without incident."
Where an escape does occur, he said they take immediate action to locate the person, make every effort to understand the event and how to prevent it from happening again in the future.
"There were 26,768 medical escorts alone between 2019/20 (13,433) and 2020/21 (13,335) financial years, resulting in a very small number of escapes (4 and 5 respectively). That results in 0.03 per cent of the time escorts are carried out. While not acceptable, it is extremely rare."
Corrections chief custodial officer Neil Beale. Photo / RNZ
Beales said when a prisoner does escape, Corrections immediately contacts the New Zealand Police, who are responsible for locating and returning the individual to custody.
"We work with Police to ensure this person is located as soon as possible. Please be aware that people who have escaped from custody will be doing all they can to avoid Police detection and will often go to extreme lengths to avoid being caught."
He said any prisoner who resorts to this behaviour will be held to account for their actions.
"A person who is convicted of escaping lawful custody can receive a maximum sentence of five years' imprisonment."
In recent years he said there had been improvements to their system processes and training to ensure the security of their prisons and escorts.
As well as this, Beales said wider policy changes have been implemented.
These include updating information clarifying when various types of handcuffs should be used, including long chain handcuffs; and updating information regarding the removal of mechanical restraints during escorts.
"We have also increased the use of GPS monitoring for hospital escorts and expanded on the use of telehealth services, thereby avoiding the need to move people in prison outside the secure perimeter of the prison, where clinically appropriate."
