Mahvash Ikram
After years of complaints about Corrections transferring defendants on remand without notifying counsel, criminal lawyers have welcomed a new notification system that will inform them when their client is being moved from one prison to another.
Criminal barrister and Vice-President of The Law Association, Julie-Anne Kincade KC, said lawyers often arrived at prison to meet their client only to find the person had been moved to another facility without notice. “Our clients would be moved, and we would find out that this had happened only once we were standing literally in the visits area – having spent in the region of 15 to 20 minutes going through security etc to get to said visit area, never mind the time it takes to drive to the prison.”
Kincade said the criminal bar was grateful that Corrections had listened to feedback and was introducing a system where counsel would be notified by email prior to a prisoner being moved to another facility or if a planned transfer was being cancelled.
The system will go live from Wednesday 1 October. It comes after Corrections surveyed lawyers, seeking feedback about access to clients in custody.
But another lawyer who requested not to be named told LawNews he was surprised it had taken Corrections so long to implement a system that was “not just courtesy, but also common sense”.
The lawyer said had been waiting for a client in the visiting area of Christchurch Men’s prison recently when he was told the prisoner was at the airport and about to put on a flight to Auckland. “The prison manager was very embarrassed and moved heaven and earth to get the client back.”
Kincade said the prison muster had hit record numbers in recent years, exacerbating the problem of counsel not being informed about transfers. A high prison population also meant those on remand could not be accommodated at Mt Eden Corrections Facility and were transferred to “usual remand prisons”, she said.
Corrections said despite its commitment to the new notification system, “prisoner population pressures” could result in short-notice transfers and it would not always be possible to provide advance notice of 24 hours or more.
The notification system will include lawyers representing clients with active charges and upcoming court hearings, but counsel for prisoners with upcoming New Zealand Parole Board hearings will not be given advance notice if their clients are moved.
Kincade called on lawyers to help make the new system work.
“We do ask all lawyers to cooperate with this new system – for example, where they receive an email and they are not in fact the assigned lawyer anymore, could they please pass that information on to the new lawyer (if you know who that is) and Corrections?”
Other initiatives
Corrections’ Commissioner Custodial Services, Leigh Marsh, said the earlier survey was part of a wider project to improve access to prisoners in custody. Corrections has partnered with the Ministry of Justice, the judiciary and the police to set up an open prisons working group and also held regular forums with lawyers.
He said Corrections had recently provided training in prisons around the use of the online booking tool to improve record-keeping and help keep track of prisoners’ planned activities, including legal visits.
“We are also working to create easier administrative processes for lawyers to gain physical access to prisons, including through the use of Authorised Provider Prison Entry ID cards,” he said.
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