Mt Eden Prison 'don't have enough staff'

  • 03/12/2015
Beven Hanlon (Paul Henry)
Beven Hanlon (Paul Henry)

Teenage prisoners are being locked up with adults for long periods of time at Auckland's troubled Mt Eden Prison.

The Ombudsman has revealed a large number of young people are locked in their cells for up to 23 hours a day.

Beven Hanlon of the Corrections Association says youth programmes have been scrapped because the prison is not properly staffed.

"They don't have enough staff, they can't run the facility properly," he told the Paul Henry programme this morning.

"I guess the one thing people consider, say here is, 'Well at least they kept them locked up and didn't have them running riot like they did the rest of the prison."

The Green Party has likened the treatment of the teenage prisoners as "akin to torture" and say Corrections Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga should be clear about what the department has done about it since it was told more than a year ago.

Greens corrections spokesman David Clendon says Mr Lotu-Iiga has serious questions to answer, including why the "barbaric practice" was allowed in the first place and if it is continuing since Corrections took over running Mt Eden prison from Serco earlier this year.

Watch the video for the full interview with Beven Hanlon.