'Help, help, help', started the note found by a shopper buying boots from a New York department store, from a man claiming to be held in a Chinese prison factory.

Criminals are being given free mobile phones in a bid to stop them reoffending when they get out of jail, in a pilot scheme at the privately-run Mt Eden Correctional Facility in Auckland.

Female inmates will be cooking food and serving staff at New Zealand's busiest court in a plan being worked on by justice and prison bosses.

As the Government shuts some of our publicly-run prisons, we investigate whether private prisons are the principled answer to justice.

A Japanese court has decided to release a man who was sentenced to death in 1980 in a high-profile murder case based on new DNA evidence.

As the Crown's balance sheet approaches a quarter of a trillion dollars, managing those assets and the risks is becoming more important, says the Treasury.

About 600 construction workers are on the 17ha site of New Zealand's biggest new prison and the country's largest public-private partnership, which is recruiting staff now.

The secret prison within a prison at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre that houses several alleged terrorists - is falling apart.

An ex-girlfriend of a jailed rapist is furious he was able to stalk her from prison, and also arrange for another prisoner to carry on the surveillance.

New Zealand's prison population continues to grow despite record-low crime rates and an ambitious Government strategy to cut reoffending.

In the course of 2013, I encountered two memorable examples of things that are wrong, that need to be put right and probably won't be.

Offenders who get locked up for Christmas can forget about a special meal from the cops on the big day.

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.

Corrections is trying to prevent prisoners from stockpiling fruit after inmates were found to have made an alcoholic drink out of it before a major riot at Spring Hill Prison.

'It feels like there is no hope left out there.' There are concerns in Christchurch that the city's housing situation is more dire than ever, with families squatting in the red zone.

Auckland Prison's maximum security wing is to be completely rebuilt under a Public Private Partnership (PPP).

The rate of repairs to earthquake-damaged Housing New Zealand homes in Christchurch has been slammed for being "painfully slow".

No building in Auckland is quite as grim as Mt Eden Prison.

A building expert has expressed concerns about Auckland's historic Mt Eden Prison being empty.

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.

A group of inmates are stonewalling a police investigation into a near-fatal stabbing at Paremoremo Prison.

Prison officers allegedly used "ghosting" to alter records after an inmate's death to state they had checked on prisoners more often than they had.

A psychologist has been banned from treating prison inmates and told her contact with them was "inappropriate".