11 November 2021
C142170
Kirsten Gibson
[FYI request #16985 email] Tēnā koe Kirsten
Thank you for your email of 1 October 2021, requesting information about unlock
hours for people in prison. Your request has been considered under the Official
Information Act 1982 (OIA).
You requested:
Please provide me, in excel format, the full daily records of prisoners’ time out
of cell between 1st August 2021 and 30th September 2021. I understand this
will involve private information that you will need to redact. If this information
is not available at an individual level, please give me this broken down into the
smallest group (such as unit or unlock regime) and explain how this
information is collected.
Each prison site, and within that each unit, has highly variable operational
procedures in place with respect to its daily timetable schedule. People in prison are
unlocked at variable times and their day will depend on their classification, their
category placement, the available facilities, their employment commitments, medical
appointments, and Court appearances or any programme(s) that they may attend.
As such, Corrections does not centrally record details of unlock regimes for any
prison sites, wings or units, and it is not possible to extract this information from our
electronic records. Accordingly, your request for daily prison schedules is declined
under section 18(g) of the OIA, as the information requested is not held by
Corrections and we have no grounds for believing that the information is either held
by or connected more closely with the functions of another department.
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Should you have any concerns with this response, I would encourage you to raise
them with Corrections. Alternatively, you are advised of your right to also raise any
concerns with the Office of the Ombudsman. Contact details are: Office of the
Ombudsman, PO Box 10152, Wellington 6143.
Ngā mihi
Robert Jones
Manager Ministerial Services
People and Capability
