Where can you find out about your rights?
When you enter prison you need to know if you have any rights. In law you do have essential rights highlighted here in bold type. Other so-called ‘rights’ are in fact privileges which can be withdrawn, lost, postponed or removed. Prison staff will often decide if a ‘right’ exists, so it’s wise to obey all orders and then check it out later.
What rights you have are set out in NZ and international law (see over). The key ones for you are the Corrections Act 2004, the Corrections Regulations 2005, and the prison Policy & Procedures Manual, (also called PPM or Operational Standards). The NZ Bill of Rights Act (1990) also offers you some protection. The prison you are in, must be managed so as to provide for your fair, safe, secure, orderly, and humane containment – so you should not be placed in situations of known or unreasonable personal risk. No officer or staff member can deliberately act or speak in a manner likely to provoke you (Corrections Act 2004 s84).
What are your rights?
INFORMATION- to be given information about your rights, duties, and responsibilities in prison in a way that you easily understand
- to see the Policy and Procedures Manual, normally held in the control room of each wing or in the prison library or resource room. This is a public document as are the Corrections Act and Regulations which you can also expect to find in the library/resource room. You can ask for copies of pages or sections of PPM. PPM is now accessible through prison wing computer sites.
- to see your own file under supervision, at no cost, and to ask for copies. You can complain to the Ombudsman if all or parts of your file are withheld.
PERSONAL NEEDS
- a sufficient quantity of wholesome food and drink
- clothing and footwear adequate for your safety, warmth, comfort and health, and suitable for any activity or work undertaken by you, including safe work gear
- bed, mattress and clean bedding sufficient for warmth, health and reasonable comfort
- practice the religion of your choice and not work on any day inconsistent with religious practices/beliefs
- you are not required to work longer than 40 hrs/wk and have the right in international law to refuse to work for a private contractor – such work must be voluntary
- you have a right to reasonable access to news, library services, and free education as per Education Act 1989, and further education as approved by prison manager and which you are likely to have to pay for.
- the means to keep yourself and your cell clean and tidy
- physical exercise – a minimum of 1 hour per day, outside your cell, and preferably out of doors
- medical treatment reasonably equivalent to standards outside prison and that is reasonably necessary and to have physical and mental health needs met promptly
- no internal examination of any body orifice may be conducted on you by prison staff. Any rub-down or strip search must be done by an officer of your own sex with ‘decency and sensitivity’ and afford you ‘the greatest degree of privacy and dignity’.
- No officer of the opposite sex may be PRESENT during your strip-searching.
- Strip searches amy involve a visual examination of mouth, nose,ears,anal and genital areas using a device to illuminate or magnify (e.g. mirrors, torches) BUT no device can be inserted into any of these areas.
- access to private visitors for at least 30 minutes/week, visiting times being set by each prison – usually 2 hours/week and removable only if in isolation on penalty grounds
- vote in elections if your sentence is 2 years or less
- access to legal advisors out of the hearing of staff
- access to Statutory Visitors (Visiting Justice, Ombudsman, Inspector of Prisons, MP); and Specified Visitors (Ministers of Religion, Cultural Advisers, Support people).
- send and receive as much mail as you wish which is often opened and may be read. Unless the police are involved, you must be told if any mail to or from you has been withheld. You have the right to send confidential, unopened mail to your lawyer (if properly addressed) or to an official agency such as the Ombudsman, Inspector, Visiting Justice, Health & Disability Commissioner, Human Rights Commission, Police Complaints Authority, Privacy Commissioner, Minister of Corrections, and MP.
- you must have reasonable access to make telephone calls to your lawyer. You are also entitled to one outgoing call to family/friends per week of up to 5 minutes long which you will pay for – removable if in isolation on penalty grounds.
- Apart from calls to a lawyer or official agency your calls may be monitored, listened to, and recorded by the prison without your consent. 0800 numbers can be added to your 10 telephone contacts.
CHARGES
- if charged with a disciplinary offence you must receive written notice of the charge promptly. You can apply to the Prison Inspector to dismiss a charge if you have not had such notice within 7 days, or if the hearing has not been adjourned and not held within 14 days, or if the hearing has been adjourned and not heard within 21 days. If a drug offence and you seek independent urinalysis the hearing may not be heard within the first 23 days but must be heard within the following 14 days.
- you have a right to get assistance in preparing for a disciplinary hearing – out of the hearing of any person, and have a support person attend your hearing. No punishment or loss of minimum entitlements can be imposed prior to the disciplinary hearing.
- you also have the right to call witnesses and cross-examine all witnesses during hearings.
- you have the right to appeal to the Visiting Justice any decisions made by the Superintendent in disciplinary hearings and to seek further legal advice and support during any subsequent hearing
- you have a right to apply for legal representation at disciplinary hearings before the Visiting Justice
- you have a right to seek a judicial review of decisions made by the Visiting Justice which you must do through a lawyer who must be paid (legal aid possible).
NZ Bill of Rights Act 1990
- Everyone has the right not to be subject to torture, or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (s9).
- Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure, whether of the person, property, or correspondence or otherwise (s21).
- Everyone deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the person (s23(5)).
- Every person has the right to the observance of the principles of natural justice by any tribunal or other public authority which has the power to make a determination in respect of that person’s rights, obligations or interest protected or recognized by law (s27(1)). For example at prison disciplinary hearings.
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NOTE THAT The Corrections Regulations 2005 has 8 Schedules at the back dealing with authorised cell contents, disciplinary hearings, drug testing, prohibition orders, property you can have, or ask to have in your cell, and the rules on mechanical restraints.(e.g. handcuffs)
International Human Rights Instruments The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948; the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966; the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; and the United National Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, all provide specific protections for prisoners, particularly against torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Torture is defined as any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as the obtaining of information, confession, punishment, intimidation or coercion, or for any reason based on discrimination.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 29 (concerning forced and compulsory labour) provides that prisoners, volunteer for work; are not hired or placed at the disposal of private individuals, companies or associations.
Your rights are set out inside this leaflet. You also have the right to apply for :
- special visits
- compassionate leave
- home leave
- work and education parole
- home detention (if court directs, or your sentence is 2 or more years)
- parole board hearings
- additional cell items
- child access visits
- specialist programmes
If you have concerns about your treatment in prison you
need raise these first using the internal complaints procedure of
the prison, usually in this order — Unit floor staff
—–> Principal Corrections Officer —> Unit
Manager.
If you feel you have not had a fair go through the internal
complaints procedure, write to or call:
| Prison Inspector South | 0800 225 697 |
| Ombudsmen free phone | 0800 802 602 |
| Howard League Canterbury | 03 3770 313 |
| Howard League Auckland | 09 6223 214 |
| NZPARS | 04 4724 385 |
| PARS Canterbury | 0800 727 754 |
| Health and Disability Comm. | 0800 112 233 |
You also have the right to contact or write to the:
Police Complaints Authority - Human Rights Commission – The Race Relations Office – The Privacy Commissioner - MPs - The Minister of Corrections - Department of Corrections officials.
Produced by the Howard League for Penal Reform Canterbury and
funded by the Cathy Pelly Maungarongo Trust. Drawing on Tim
McBride’s chapter ‘Prisoners’, NZ Civil
Rights Handbook (2000), other relevant material, and wider
consultation, prisoners can use this pamphlet as a guide to
seeking further advice.
OCTOBER 2005