New Zealand Minister of Corrections Kelvin Davis ordered an overhaul of women’s prisons in the country on Sunday. Davis’ move specifically targets processes, the complaints system and management of female prisoners. The aim is to fulfill the purposes of Hōkai Rangi, a strategy released by the Department of Corrections (DOC) in 2019, which prioritizes wellbeing with the aim of securing “better outcomes” for Māori and their whānau.

Davis outlined the move in a letter to Jeremy Lightfoot, the Chief Executive of Corrections. The move is in response to “incidents that took place at Auckland Region Women’s Corrections Facility (ARWCF) between 2019 and 2020.” The incidents were revealed in an inspection report released by the Office of the Inspectorate in June of 2020 and other evidence provided to Davis. Its findings included poor processes, insufficient health staff, failure to meet the needs of prisoners with disabilities, difficulty accessing sanitary items, and poor reporting practices underpinned by a punitive culture and dysfunctional management.

Davis provided several actions that he expects the DOC to take. The actions include providing staff with additional training; an external review of the complaints process; a plan detailing how the DOC will address systematic issues in the ARWCF; reviewing processes and regulations; and an “urgent overhaul of the maximum security classification for women, the development of management plans for women and a review of all women’s prisons.” Davis also expects the DOC to accept all of the Chief Inspector’s recommendations.

Davis stated:

The failings highlighted in the Chief Inspector’s report are unacceptable. The lack of oversight and leadership has had a major impact on prisoners. … Corrections Officers deal with some of New Zealand’s most challenging people, many with serious behavioural issues. They risk their personal safety on a daily basis and that is why I have directed Corrections to do further work on keeping staff safe from harm.

Davis’ letter has received support from other political parties. The Green Party, which has a cooperation agreement with the majority party Labour, shared its support in a press release and encouraged Davis to extend the overhaul to all prisons.

“We need transparency and culture change in the system,” Golriz Ghahraman, the Green Party’s spokesperson for Corrections commented. “The work programme set out for Corrections should be extended to all prisons, including men’s prisons, where we know serious breaches of human rights have occurred, leading most recently to the Waikeria Prison protest.”

Davis will receive a progress report in August.