New prison block to ease crowding

Press, 5 October 1977, Page 1

New prison block to ease crowding

Overcrowding at Addington Prison should be lessened when a big new administration block and boilerhouse are built at the institution.

All administration offices and other facilities will be moved into the new complex — leaving room for extra cells in the existing building. Tenders have been called for the job, and work is expected to start by the end of next month. The two-storey administration block will have a floor area of about 250 sq m.

On the ground floor will be a prisoners’ reception and discharge centre, baggage rooms, holding cells, a medical office, and a laund The top floor will

ry house a locker room and other facilities for prison staff.

“At the moment these offices and facilities are scattered through the prison,” said the Superin 3 tendent of Christchurch Prisons (Mr H. S. Stroud) yesterday. “We will have extra space left in the old building, and it seems probable that this will be converted into more •accommodation’,” he said. The building of the new complex was expected to take at least a year. The Minister of Justice (Mr Thomson) will visit Addington Prison, and hopes to be able to discuss with members of the staff special problems which may .have developed.

He declined to discuss the recent death of an inmate on the ground that it was in the hands of the police, but said he would be interested in the result. When asked in Parliament yesterday by Mr N. J. Kirk (Lab., Sydenham) what immediate action had been taken to prevent hard drugs entering prisons since the death at Addington, Mr Thomson said experience both in New Zealand and overseas showed that it was not possible to exclude illicit drugs completely from penal institutions, even those designed for maximum security. “I will not describe some of the methods that can be used,” he said. “It is enough to say that they do not depend simply upon conveyance by visitors.

although that is the usual channel at present.” Theoretically a totally sterile environment could be produced by severing every form of contact the prisoner had with the outside world, Mr Thomson said. However in practice it would be impossible. Prisons depended on many supplies and services which could be used to breach security by those who were determined to do so.

“To eliminate every possible channel would mean disregarding practical difficulties and the enormous cost as well as humanitarian principles,” Mr Thomson said. “Small quantities of drugs are easy to conceal, and no prison can be made selfsufficient and isolated from the community.”