Report sought on use of prisoners

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33427, 8 January 1974, Page 10

Report sought on use of prisoners

'Xcu Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, January 7.

I he Justice Department has asked for a report about the incident involving two Napier Prison inmates who were clearing property some distance from the prison.

The prisoners were described as (food Samaiitans after they helped an injured prison officer who had been supervising them while they cleared his section. The officer, Mr Charles I Hutchinson, aged 22, of Hinau Street, Hastings, was

• i knocked unconscious by a .!falling tree branch. I The Director of Prisons (Mr: _ R. O. Williams) said today jthat the department was ask- ■ ing for a report on the matr.ter. But it had been normal policy for years to allow, minimum security risk! . prisoners to go into the! j- homes of prison officers to I ' help them with odd jobs. i “However, we are still con-1 'cerned about the distance the! men were in this case from the institution.” Mr Williams: said. The Prison Service had found that where an inmate' was invited into an officer’s! .home it tended to further good relations between 1 prisoner and officer. “This is a purely voluntary' arrangement as far as the! inmate is concerned.” Mr (Williams said. Most prisoners welcomed the chance to get outside the prison gates and do a few odd jobs away from prison' routine. Mr Williams emphasised that in all cases such inmates had been judged minimum e security risks, and the prison! J officer had to get permission'

from the prison superintendent before taking an inmate (out. In most cases where the prisoner did odd jobs round an officer’s home he was helping to maintain departmental land, as many officers Hived in departmental houses. I But there was no policy proihibiting prison officers employing inmates where they !owned their own houses, Mr Williams said. There was no suggestion that prisoners were being exploited in this respect. “We certainly would not ;condone any form of exploitation,” Mr Williams said. “It is a voluntary practice.” The sort of inmate involved could range from a person convicted of drunken driving Ito one who was nearing the end of a long sentence and who had proved his trustworthiness. Officers who took prisoners into their homes were oft duty and were not paid for looking alter the prisoner. “We expect the officer to retain custody of the inmate,”! Mr Williams said.

(Earlier report, page 2.)