On the table at Rimutaka Prison last week was lamb fillet with duck liver pate, caramelised potatoes and vegetables in an oxtail jus.

Prisons with Maori Focus Units are changing they way they work, offering more time between prisoners and their families in a bid to cut reoffending.

Hinewirangi Kohu-Morgan is a boss inside Waikeria Prison. She's a Maori woman teaching Maori men how to be men.

Damian came to prison when he was barely into his teens - he's doing life and it will be years before he'll come up for parole.

New rental televisions for prisoners are one step in a long-term plan to have inmates manage their lives from their cell.

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

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.

The father of a Spring Hill Prison inmate says last weekend's riots were sparked by a fracas between the 19-year-old and guards after they caught him with home brew.

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.

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.