Men moved to ease gaol crowding

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34129, 15 April 1976, Page 11

Men moved to ease gaol crowding

(N.Z frest Asaocitttonl AUCKLAND. Fifty-eight prisoners have been moved from Mt Eden gaol in the last week to ease the chronic overcrowding there. Special transfers to other institutions were arranged when Mt Eden’s inmate population climbed as high as 440 earlier this month — well above the figure which penal officers consider satisfactory. Mt Eden was built to hold about 300 inmates but it is many years since the prison held only this many. Prisoners are now commonly doubled up in cells designed for one, and the population is often more than 400.

Tuesday’s census was 376— a number which one officer described as “workable.” In 1971-72. the total has climbed as high as 460. The special steps being taken at Mt Eden appear to illustrate the plight of medium security prison staff and inmates throughout the country. The assistant secretary for penal institutions at the Justice Department (Mr R. Williams) confirmed that the major sabotage of accommodation was in medium security gaols, such as Mt Eden. The Wellington and Christchurch medium security gaols are also well over their designed capacity. Transfers had to be made recently from Napier Prison, where “very serious overcrowding” existed. Ninety inmates were being held in a gaol designed for 34.