Prison staff under investigation

Hawke's Bay Prison has been rocked by another police investigation of staff, sparked by the arrest of a female prison officer after an affair with an inmate.

The woman, who is no longer working at the prison, was granted interim name suppression in Hastings District Court last week, facing three charges linked to the relationship, including fraud by deception.

She is alleged to have used prison phones to call a cellphone held by the inmate and caused a $593.12 loss to the Corrections Department, and also snapped images of the inmate on a cellphone and supplied him with clothing, both in breach of prison regulations.

She was remanded without plea to appear in court again on January 13.

More police visited the prison on Tuesday and Hastings CIB head Detective Senior Sergeant Dam Aberahama confirmed today other staff were being interviewed about other allegations.

No others had been charged and no others were yet thought to be facing any other action.

No comment had been made by the Corrections Department by mid-morning today.

Corrections Association national president Willie Cochrane, who is based at the prison, said the officer who had been charged was not a member of the association, and the association was working largely on "hearsay" that other officers were being investigated about other allegations.

"We are in a position where we don't know a lot," he said.

He was at a meeting at the Corrections Department's head office today, not specifically related to the issue but at which "questions will be raised," he said.

Hawke's Bay Prison opened ahead of schedule because of a nationwide prison-muster blowout in 1989, to replace the century- old Napier Prison, which was not completely closed until four years later.

The jail, commonly known at the time as Mangaroa Prison, ran into immediate problems, from escapes to allegations which led to a mass-suspension and prosecution of officers.

Most of the prosecutions, including one relating to a subsequently discredited inmate's claims of a sexual relationship inside the prison with a female officer, failed or were withdrawn, and most of the suspended officers were reinstated or compensated for loss of their jobs.

"Ninety per cent of it was unfounded," Mr Cochrane recalled.

But the problems sparked the 1993 Ministerial Inquiry Into Management Practices at the Prison, which identified numerous inadequacies, including the lack of training provided for many of the officers.

There has since been a high-profile compensation payout to several long-term inmates over allegations of abuse and beatings of inmates by officers.

- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY