A lack of staff is putting an “enormous strain” on New Zealand’s prison network — with hundreds of vacancies in facilities across the country.
New figures released to Breakfast under the Official Information Act revealed there were 412 vacancies for full-time corrections officers as of late March.
All but one prison were looking for staff. The facilities with the most vacancies were Christchurch Men’s, with 75, Rimutaka, with 56, and Otago Corrections, with 45. Spring Hill Corrections was the only facility with no staff vacancies.
The department has embarked on a nearly $4 million marketing campaign in 2022 seeking new officers.
The campaign has attracted 26,000 people apply to become Corrections officers in 18 months.
Despite the surge in applicants, guards on the ground still said they were understaffed and stressed.
Speaking to Breakfast this morning, Corrections Association organiser Alan Whitley said the vacancies put “an enormous strain across the whole network”.
He said recruitment was “better” than it was before the campaign but “we still have vacancies”.
The prisons most affected were smaller ones with fewer staff.
“You lose 20 of your staff at a smaller prison. That’s hard to combat,” he said.
Whitley said the issues started after Covid-19 restrictions were lifted, when “a lot of people moved back to their trades” and out of the country.
“The economy was quite buoyant – you could earn a lot of money more safely outside,” he said.
“The Australian prisons were after staff, and they paid better, and staff left the job.”
He said these issues were pointed out to Corrections but “they ignored us”.
Corrections: ‘Not all vacancies require filling’
In information released to Breakfast, Corrections said: “Caution is urged when drawing conclusions from the current number of vacancies shown, as the number of vacancies reported is not necessarily an indication of the level of staffing challenges a particular site is experiencing.
“We report vacancies as positions which are established but are currently unfilled. However, operational requirements at prison sites can mean not all vacancies require filling.”
However, Whitley disagreed. He said all vacancies needed to be filled to ensure prisons were running properly.
“We have established levels, and we need to have those. If we haven’t got those, we need to have them,” he said.
“So, to say that we’ve got established numbers, but we’re not going to recruit them all because we don’t need them all is utter rubbish.”
He also said the department was “struggling” to train the increasing number of new recruits.
“We’re having to run courses in the regions, not at the national learning centre. We don’t have enough room down there.”
The best solution, in Whitley’s eyes, was to simply “recruit to the right amount of staff”.
Meanwhile, the Government has promised a harder line on law and order.
Last week, the coalition Government announced its revived three-strikes policy, which would set out lengthy, mandatory sentences for certain repeat offenders — with more prisoners likely as a result.
Whitley said officers “are going to wear out” if Corrections’ staffing issues weren’t addressed soon.
“More staff are going to start leaving because of the stress and the impact of having to work longer hours on the job,” he said.
“And we’ll just get deeper into a hole as more prisoners come in the door.”
He did say, however, that officers were “optimistic” following the change of government and ministers.
“The previous government was quite keen not to fill prisons. There was quite a surge in crime.
“The current Government is addressing crime, which is putting people into prisons – but they need to look at the safety aspects that we’ve got in prisons, and they need to support the prison staff.”
Whitley said new Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell had been out talking to officers, “which is something we haven’t seen in a long time”.
“He’s recognising that it’s a tough job to do. He’s recognising that we might need some additional safety equipment, which he’s keen to allow Corrections to look at.”
Efforts to retain staff
Corrections told Breakfast a number off efforts were being made to ensure it was retaining staff across the network.
This included improving staff safety, increasing investment in training, creating new rosters, continuing to work with union partners, improving wellbeing initiatives, and ensuring people had pathways to build long-term careers.
“We also anticipate that the new collective agreement ratified by our union partners in November 2023 will have a positive impact on staff retention, with changes including improved pay and benefits, as well as safety and wellbeing provisions,” a Corrections spokesperson said.