Newshub has discovered a prisoner facing serious charges was accidentally released from the Serco-run south Auckland prison.
Details of the serious mistake have come to light despite Corrections refusing to release the performance reports of the jail, citing privacy, legal and commercial concerns.
Instead of more than a dozen reports we asked for under the Official Information Act, Corrections provided a one page table of fines for poor performance.
It confirms the south Auckland prison accidently let an inmate walk free in April last year.
Now it says the prisoner "had completed his sentence but faced new charges and should have been transferred to Mount Eden Corrections Facility".
That's the other jail still staffed by Serco. Instead he walked.
As soon as Serco became aware of the error, they alerted the police and he was subsequently returned to custody.
Corrections says procedures have since been strengthened.
Serco suffered a technical knockout at Mt Eden prison. They were dumped from its contract after videos of fight clubs and contraband surfaced.
The summary of performance issue shows, on average, the Serco-run south Auckland jail failed to investigate or self-report one incident per month.
Corrections eventually provided Newshub one example of an assault not being reported quickly enough - no details about the 18 other incidents.
"That is very serious, they are on a self-reporting regime and they have basically been pinged for not reporting events that have been happening in the prison," says the Corrections Association's Alan Whitley.
Corrections says it's sought and got assurances that its onsite monitoring staff are not being impeded.
Overall the prison is rated "effective" in Corrections performance table - the same score as seven other state-run jails.
In the south Auckland prison's first 19 months operating it's been docked about $315,000 for performance issues.
Newshub.
