Several staff members at Hawke’s Bay Regional Prison were assaulted in two violent incidents over the weekend, in what’s been called a “nasty and calculated” attack.
A prisoner allegedly hit a staff member with a sandwich press and threw hot water at three others in one attack, according to Corrections.
Another staff member was punched in the face in a second unrelated incident.
The alleged attacks have raised fresh concerns about prison staffing levels.
Corrections Association industrial officer Alan Whitley said the hot water used in the incident had sugar dissolved in it, burning staff further.
“It was a fairly nasty and calculated attack by the prisoner to go to the extent of putting the sugar in there to make sure it sticks”.
Corrections deputy commissioner Neil Beales said additional staff responded “immediately” and pepper spray was deployed to bring the incident under control.
“Three staff were taken off-site for medical attention, but none required overnight hospitalisation and there were no serious injuries,” he said.
Corrections said it could not verify if sugar was in the hot water, but said it would be forming part of its investigation.
The second incident happened in a different part of the prison, Beales said.
“Staff responded and quickly restrained the prisoner. This staff member was also assessed by an off-site medical centre, and there was no serious injury,” he said.
“Violence in prison is not tolerated, and anyone who displays such behaviour will be held to account for their actions, including potentially facing criminal charges. Both incidents have been referred to police, and internal misconduct charges are being progressed.”
‘We’re still short-staffed’ – union rep
Corrections said the prison was not understaffed at the time of the attacks, but the units where the incidents occurred were experiencing some “unplanned absences” and operations were adjusted accordingly.
“In both units where the incidents occurred, they had the right amount of staff to have prisoners unlocked,” Beales said.
The Corrections Association disputed this.
“The staff that I’ve spoken to said they were still trying to operate normally. The on-call manager was trying to make sure the prisoners got all their minimum entitlements. The site was extremely busy. There was some confusion with the site,” Whitley said.
He said prisoners knew how many staff were usually working, “So when there’s one or two less, that’s their opportunity.”
Whitley said that when prisons had fewer staff, it took longer for daily tasks for prisoners to have their needs met, leaving some inmates “frustrated”.
“Sometimes they don’t get what they need to and might not get to the phone to call the family that they arranged to do because they’ve been locked down, they missed the time slot that they knew they can call.
“That builds frustration up if it happens too often in the same unit over a period of time, the frustration just boils over.”
Whitley said that while staffing at prisons had been better over the last 18 months, “we’re still short-staffed”.
He said new prisoners were “rolling in through the door”, with many being violent offenders. “So, you get a whole lot of violent people in one place, and we try and get them to sort of cohabitate nicely. And it doesn’t always happen, and people get injured.”
Whitley said the best way to minimise staff being attacked was to have the right number of staff rostered.
“One of the things that we’ve always said is the way to minimise assaults is to have the right amount of staff at the right place for the category of prisons that you’re managing.”
Corrections says it’s had ‘great recruitment success’
Beales said the threat of violence in prison was not something that could be eliminated entirely, but said: “We do everything possible to minimise this risk.”
“We have invested significantly in training and tools to keep our staff safe. This includes tactical skills, such as de-escalation, through to the provision of stab-resistant body armour, on-body cameras and the expanded deployment of pepper spray.”
The deputy commissioner said that while Corrections had previously experienced challenges with staffing, it had seen “great recruitment success” in the past 14 months.
He said the agency had received around 100,000 applications for positions since a new campaign was launched in February 2024.
But Whitley said this came with its own challenges.
“We’ve got so many new staff who are in the job that are under, sort of 18 months to two years, just because of the shortage. So, experience is something you can’t teach.
“You can teach skills. You can teach people what to expect, but you can’t teach that actual experience of when you go out into the wing and something feels wrong, and your hairs start to stand up on the back of your neck”.