A Brazilian woman who helped identify escaped murderer Phillip John Smith will visit New Zealand after a local man offered to pay for her holiday.

An Auckland Prison officer has been suspended as the Department of Corrections seeks answers on how convicted murderer and paedophile Phillip Smith fled the country.

A computer hacker has demonstrated how home detention bracelets can potentially be fooled into letting criminals roam free.

A male prisoner who's spent the past ten days in Wanganui Hospital managed to escape last night.

Murderer and child sex offender Phillip John Smith's claims that he was aided in his escape to Brazil by a prison guard have angered inmates.

Convicted murderer Phillip Smith's allegations that a Corrections officer helped him escape custody last month are unsubstantiated, the Corrections union says.

Should heads now roll in the upper echelons of the Department of Corrections in the wake of convicted murderer and child molester Phillip John Smith's absconding from temporary release from jail and getting all the to Brazil before being apprehended?

The Corrections Department has confirmed it is investigating a complaint about a staff member, said to be NZ First MP Asenati Lole-Taylor's husband Dennis Taylor.

Statistics show that the so-called "black sheep of the family" is neither rare nor endangered.

Finding escaped prisoner Stephen Maddren is now like finding a needle in a haystack, police concede.

The mother of escaped prisoner Stephen Maddren has made an emotional plea for her son to give himself up.

Police have fears for escaped prisoner who fled an Otago Corrections Facility wearing only trackpants and a top as 'hypothermic conditions' set in.

A Rimutaka inmate and prison guards were attacked because the offenders believed the prisoner had "narked" to guards, a court has heard.

The family of a man who was stomped to death by teenagers is shocked the ringleader has been running a Facebook page for two years - from his prison cell.

Prisoners will not be able to have more than three pieces of fruit a day in NZ jails, after a major riot was found to have been caused by inmates who were drunk on home-brewed alcohol.

Inmates moving through the country's new $300 million prison will be able to track their path to freedom.

Leigh Woodman has endured eight parole hearings within six years to fight to keep the man who murdered her 15-year-old daughter behind bars.

Police investigations into the death of an Otago remand prisoner have been stepped up following the involvement of New Zealand's police watchdog in the case.

The Department of Corrections is facing a backlash after introducing random drug and alcohol testing for prison guards.

A child sex offender was paid $26,600 in compensation by the taxpayer under a scheme which has awarded more than $500,000 to prisoners since it came into effect in 2005.