A justice reform group is calling for 17-year-old offenders to be dealt with by the youth justice system rather than the adult criminal courts.

Questions have been raised about the culture of Sercos, after serious fraud allegations were laid against its headquarters in the UK.

Corrections Minister Anne Tolley has called a successful court challenge against smoking bans in prisons a "waste of time" because the Government has already changed the law to justify the bans.

Images from inside the military prison at Guantanamo Bay give an insight into the heavy-handed tactics the United States is using to force-feed prisoners.

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.

Officers confronted by 29 rioting inmates at the Spring Hill prison would have been overwhelmed if they tried to use pepper spray, a prison boss says.

About 100 inmates have been relocated to other prisons as abandoned cell blocks of the Spring Hill jail where rioters caused chaos yesterday are investigated.

Gang tensions are believed to have sparked the on-going prison riot at Spring Hill jail south of Auckland, where inmates are setting fires and damaging cells.

One of New Zealand's most notorious killers, William Bell, has been caught with a prison officer's stab-resistant vest in his maximum security jail cell.

There's a need for prisoners to have access to a phone and it's one everyone should understand: they need to communicate with their families.

Corrections staff are calling for special scanning chairs in all prisons after doctors found a cellphone hidden in the rectum of an injured Paremoremo prisoner.

The atmosphere in Guantanamo Bay is one of desperation, writes Grant Bayldon. Many of the detainees have been imprisoned for more than 10 years in this abyss where the rule of law and fundamental human rights disappear.

Shaker Aamer remembers the frantic knocking on the door, the voices screaming for him to get out.

Vegetables being grown in prisons throughout the country are being given back to the community.

A pilot programme at Hawke's Bay Regional Prison is saving dogs earmarked to be put down and giving them a "second chance" at life.

The lawyer for Maori activist Tame Iti is confident his application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court against his conviction and sentence will be successful.

Corrections Minister Anne Tolley said today that low security prisoners would be electronically tracked while travelling between prisons and their workplace, as well as on the job.

The Department of Corrections says there are no plans to expand Whanganui Prison, despite the fact it will need to accommodate more remand prisoners when New Plymouth Prison closes next month.

Almost 30 prison guards have been seriously assaulted since mid-2010 with 88 per cent punched in the head or face area and one attacked with hot water.