02 June 2026
C212527
H Barakat
[FYI request #34287 email]
Tēnā koe H Barakat
Thank you for your request of 29 March 2026 to the Department of Corrections – Ara
Poutama Aotearoa, requesting information about deaf/mute/hard of hearing prisoners.
Your request has been considered under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA).
I would like to acknowledge the delay in responding to your request for information under
the OIA. We always aim to adhere to legislative timeframes and I apologise that we have not
been able to do so on this occasion.
People often enter prison with significant health, disability, mental health, and addiction
needs. We are committed to providing people with specific support to meet these needs as
we help them to address the causes of their offending, improve their wellbeing, and safely
reintegrate back into their communities. People generally come into prison bearing pre-
existing disabilities, but some people may also develop a disability while in prison. In prison,
high-quality health and disability support services are critical in addressing inequitable
health and wellbeing outcomes and in ensuring continuity of care when reintegrating back
into the community.
Corrections’ Disability Action Plan gives effect to our domestic and international obligations
and works to address the significant need for improvements for disabled people. It is
available on our website, at:
https://www.corrections.govt.nz/resources/strategic_reports/disability_action_plan_2023_
2027 One of the four immediate actions of the Disability Action Plan includes incorporating the
Washington Group Short Set of Questions (WGSSQ) on Disability into health screening tools.
Information from the WGSSQ is helping to inform our understanding of the functional needs
of people in prison, such as people who identify as deaf or hearing impaired. This
information will be utilised to inform future planning, supports and resources to better
meet the needs of all disabled people. By addressing people’s needs sooner, they are more
likely to have better outcomes, which helps reduce the likelihood of reoffending once a
person has left prison. The WGSSQ may be replaced in time by an improved screening
mechanism that would be designed specifically for New Zealand circumstances.
NATIONAL OFFICE, WELLINGTON
Mayfair House, 44 – 52 The Terrace, Wellington, 6011, Private Box 1206, Wellington 6140,
Phone +64 4 460 3000
www.corrections.govt.nz
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When a person enters prison, they undergo an Initial Health Assessment (IHA). The IHA is a
comprehensive health assessment designed to explore the person’s health history and
presenting conditions, elicit the persons ongoing health needs, and develop a plan for the
care and treatment of their needs in prison. Identifying any disabilities is a minimum
component of an IHA and includes identifying assistance needs and any aids required.
Additionally, people in prison can receive funding for hearing aid services. A person in prison
with complex needs is eligible for the Ministry of Health’s Hearing Aid Subsidy Scheme,
which funds up to $511 per ear. Furthermore, Corrections will cover the costs of hearing
aids of up to $3,000 if there are no options for payments by the person in our management
or their family.
Your requests are addressed in turn below. Please note that some of your questions have
been combined for ease of response. You requested:
1. How many deaf/hard of hearing prisoners have there been in your prisons in the
last 5 years?
When a disability is identified in a prisoner that is important for their management, it is
entered into the Integrated Offender Management System (IOMS) by custodial staff, and/or
our patient management system (MedTech) by health staff as an alert.
For the purposes of answering your request we are releasing IOMS alert figures, however an
alert might separately be noted on a person’s prison medical file (MedTech records). There
are likely to be a small number of cases where an alert was noted on a person’s MedTech
records, which would be entered by health staff, but this did not translate to a
corresponding alert on the person’s IOMS profile, which would be entered by custodial staff.
However, we are releasing the IOMS alert figures to you as they most accurately capture
both of the categories you are interested in.
In IOMS, alerts such as “Deaf” and “Hearing Problems” would require a manual review to
determine the nature and extent of hearing or communication needs (e.g. deaf in one or
more ears, use of hearing aids or cochlear implants, or non-speaking).
Please see the below table which outlines the number of distinct patients with Deaf and
Hearing Alert in IOMS for the past five years. Please note that the prison population changes
on a daily basis due to court decisions and scheduled releases. We can provide figures based
on a snapshot of the prison population as at 30 June each year.
Data Source
Alert
Type
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
IOMS
Deaf
8
5
4
7
16
IOMS
Hearing
Problems
7
4
22
20
20
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Please note the following limitations with the data provided:
• The “Deaf” alert is not used exclusively for the deaf community. It may also include
people with unilateral hearing loss, partial hearing impairment, or those who are
hard of hearing. In practice, individuals with partial hearing loss are sometimes
recorded under the “Deaf” alert rather than the “Hearing” alert.
• This group may include people who use cochlear implants or hearing aids. As a
result, the data is indicative only and does not provide an exact or comprehensive
representation of the deaf population.
2. How many mute prisoners have there been in your prisons in the last 5 years?
3. How many deaf/hard of hearing and mute prisoners have there been in your
prisons in the last 5 years?
There is no specific alert in IOMS or MedTech to identify mute prisoners.
This type of information is recorded within people’s individual files, and to collate this
information would require the manual review of each file. While the prison population has
fluctuated over the last five years, Corrections currently manages more than 11,000 people
in prison. Therefore, these parts of your request are refused in accordance with section
18(f) of the OIA, as the information requested cannot be made available without no
substantial collation or research.
As per section 18B of the OIA, we have considered whether consulting with you would
enable the request to be made in a form that would remove the reason for the refusal.
However, we do not consider that the request can be refined in this instance, and we have
already provided you with the data we are able to in Question one.
4. What is the protocol regarding communication with deaf and mute prisoners? How
are they alerted re lockdowns/fires/emergencies? How are they notified about meal
times?
People in prison are managed according to their individual circumstances and needs. As
mentioned previously, when a person arrives in prison, they have an Initial Health
Assessment, at which point they can report they have a hearing impairment. Custodial staff
also will induct the person into the prison and explain the emergency procedures.
Although induction processes may vary between prisons, as an example, during the
induction process at Rimutaka Prison this conversation can be tailored for a person with the
hearing impairment. They are informed that in the event of an emergency they can press
the emergency button in their cell, get the attention of staff or other prisoners, or approach
the guardroom if possible.
Prisoners are also notified that they will be regularly monitored via CCTV footage, staff
walking around the unit and welfare checks, which allow staff to recognise emergency
situations quickly. If additional needs are recognised, the prisoner and staff work together
to create an individual plan to ensure that they are able to be safely managed in emergency
situations and be made aware of mealtimes. In relation to the part of your question that
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asks about mealtimes, please note that a significant proportion of units serve prisoners
meals in their cells.
5. How many prison guards are fluent in NZSL in prisons and which prisoners do they
work at?
The information you have requested does not currently exist in a form that can be readily
supplied to you and would instead require Corrections to initiate a project to extract,
analyse and present the data in the form requested. Therefore, this part of your request is
refused under section 18(g) of the OIA, as the information requested is not held by
Corrections, and we have no grounds for believing that it is held by another agency or more
closely connected with the functions of another agency.
6. Is there someone on site at all times able to communicate with hard of hearing,
deaf and/or mute prisoners? What prisoners is this available at?
Currently, interpreters can be requested as needed via our service provider, iSign through
Deaf Aotearoa. iSign interpreters are available for engagement between our staff and
people in prison when required at critical times, including initial contact, pre-sentence/PAC
interviews, New Zealand Parole Board interviews, legal meetings and when discussing
health needs. When a prisoner is known to be deaf, an interpreter is requested by default.
You can find out more about their services at the following link:
https://www.deaf.org.nz/what-we-do/isign/
7. What is the protocol for a prisoner who is hard of hearing, deaf or mute suffering a
medical episode? Can you please also specify how they would signal to Corrections of
such an event?
All cells have a call button, which allow prisoners to alert staff to an issue. Although there is
no specialised response to medical episodes for deaf prisoners, people are managed
according to their individual needs, including cases where staff are aware that the prisoner
is deaf, hard of hearing and/or mute. If staff are aware that a prisoner may not say anything
when the call button is pressed, staff may instead go to their cell. Additionally deaf prisoners
who have functional literacy may choose to utilise whiteboards for communication.
8. How would prisons communicate with/interact with prisoners that have low
literacy, and are mute and deaf?
Corrections manages a complex population of prisoners, including those with low literacy
and dyslexia. Therefore, custodial staff are encouraged to spend additional time explaining
written documents.
One of the short-term actions (2024-2027) in our Disability Action Plan is Corrections staff
having resourcing for, and access to, learning NZ Sign Language (NZSL). At present,
Corrections staff and deaf or hearing-impaired people in prison can access New Zealand Sign
Language translation services on request. We have developed and released New Zealand
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Sign Language (NZSL), te Reo Māori, Easy Read, large print and pictorial versions of the
Disability Action Plan to ensure the plan is accessible to all disabled people.
9. How many deaf, mute and/or hard of hearing prisoners have died in custody in
New Zealand in the last 5 years?
As noted in the response to Question One, we can provide figures relating to people in
prison with a “Deaf” or “Hard of Hearing” alert on their IOMS profile or Medtech records.
None of the people included in the table provided in response to Question One have died in
custody.
Please note that this response may be published on Corrections’ website. Typically,
responses are published quarterly or as otherwise determined. Your personal information
including name and contact details will be removed for publication.
If you have any concerns with this response, we encourage you to raise them with
Corrections. Alternatively, you have the right to make a complaint to the Ombudsman.
Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by
contacting them on 0800 802 602 or by post to the Office of the Ombudsman, PO Box
10152, Wellington 6143.
Ngā mihi
Leigh Marsh
Deputy Chief Executive
Pae Ora
