COTA Reports
Ti Lamusse made this Official Information request to Department of Corrections
The request was refused by Department of Corrections.
From: Ti Lamusse
Dear Department of Corrections,
Please release all reports produced by the Ombudsman into New Zealand prisons with the authority granted to it under the Crimes of Torture Act between 2007 and today's date (10/12/2016).
As I understand there may need to be some details redacted for security reasons, please contact me if extra time is required to complete this request. Please be aware that the Ombudsman has expected COTA reports to be released in the past, but has allowed for redaction.
Yours faithfully,
Ti Lamusse
From: Info@Corrections
Department of Corrections
Thank you for contacting the Department of Corrections. This is an
automatic reply to let you know that we have received your email.
Our website, [1]www.corrections.govt.nz provides up to date news and
information about the work of the Department of Corrections.
If you are requesting information about an offender or prisoner, please
note that we are required to comply with the Privacy Act 1993, the
Official Information Act 1982 and the Victims Rights Act 2002.
Please note, Official Information Act 1982 and Privacy Act 1993 requests
received on or after 28 November 2015 will take into account the Christmas
period. The period 27 December 2016 to 15 January 2017 inclusive is not
considered "working days." Further information can be found on the Office
of the Ombudsman’s website at [2]http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/
This means that unless you are the victim of a serious crime, or there are
other safety reasons, we must ask the prisoner or offender if they consent
to their information being released to you. If you do not want the
offender to know that you are asking about them, please send us another
email and let us know.
If you are a victim of serious crime, you will find information about the
Victim Notification Register on our website:
[3]http://www.corrections.govt.nz/community...
If you are a friend or family member of an offender, you will find useful
information on our website:
[4]http://www.corrections.govt.nz/working_w...
If you are looking for information about managing offenders in the
community, visit:
[5]http://www.corrections.govt.nz/about-us/...
Once again, thank you for contacting us. We will respond to your query as
soon as we are able. Please note that due to the high volume of emails we
receive, it may take us some time to respond to you, however every effort
will be made to comply with the timeframes outlined in the Privacy Act
1993 and the Official information Act 1982.
Kind regards,
[6][Department of Corrections request email]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The
information in this message is the property of the New Zealand Department
of Corrections. It is intended only for the person or entity to which it
is addressed and may contain confidential or privileged material. Any
review, storage, copying, editing, summarising, transmission,
retransmission, dissemination or other use of, by any means, in whole or
part, or taking any action in reliance upon, this information by persons
or entities other than intended recipient are prohibited. If you received
this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from all
computers.
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/www.corrections.govt.nz
2. http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/
3. http://www.corrections.govt.nz/community...
4. http://www.corrections.govt.nz/working_w...
5. http://www.corrections.govt.nz/about-us/...
6. mailto:[Department of Corrections request email]
From: Info@Corrections
Department of Corrections
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Dear Ti,
Thank you for your email of 10 December 2016, requesting information
relating to reports produced by the Ombudsman into New Zealand prisons
with the authority granted to it under the Crimes of Torture Act
2007-present.
Your request will be considered under the Official Information Act 1982.
Kind regards,
Ministerial Services
Department of Corrections Ara Poutama Aotearoa
Mayfair House | 44-52 The Terrace | Private Box 1206 | Wellington
[1]1 [2]4,3,2
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From: Info@Corrections
Department of Corrections
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Response C82014.pdf
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Dear Ti Lamusse
Please find attached correspondence from the Department of Corrections.
Ministerial Services
Department of Corrections Ara Poutama Aotearoa
Mayfair House | 44-52 The Terrace | Private Box 1206 | Wellington
[1]1 [2]4,3,2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The
information in this message is the property of the New Zealand Department
of Corrections. It is intended only for the person or entity to which it
is addressed and may contain confidential or privileged material. Any
review, storage, copying, editing, summarising, transmission,
retransmission, dissemination or other use of, by any means, in whole or
part, or taking any action in reliance upon, this information by persons
or entities other than intended recipient are prohibited. If you received
this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from all
computers.
References
Visible links
1. http://www.corrections.govt.nz/
2. file:///tmp/foiextract20170112-38-vc6ady#MicrosoftOfficeMap0
From: Ti Lamusse
Dear Info@Corrections,
Thank you for getting back to me.
You invited my to refine my request to reduce the volume of documentation involved in this request.
I make the following refinement:
- Please detail the name of prison, the date(s) the investigation(s) were conducted, and the date of publication of the report for each of the "more than 50 reports" conducted by the Ombudsmen under its COTA authority.
- Please release the executive summary of each of those reports
- Please release the findings of the "prisoner questionnaire" for each of those reports
Yours sincerely,
Ti Lamusse
From: Info@Corrections
Department of Corrections
Thank you for contacting the Department of Corrections. This is an
automatic reply to let you know that we have received your email.
Our website, [1]http://www.corrections.govt.nz/ provides up to date news
and information about the work of the Department of Corrections.
If you are requesting information about an offender or prisoner, please
note that we are required to comply with the Privacy Act 1993, the
Official Information Act 1982 and the Victims Rights Act 2002.
This means that unless you are the victim of a serious crime, or there are
other safety reasons, we must ask the prisoner or offender if they consent
to their information being released to you. If you do not want the
offender to know that you are asking about them, please send us another
email and let us know.
If you are a victim of serious crime, you will find information about the
Victim Notification Register on our website:
[2]http://www.corrections.govt.nz/informati...
If you are a friend or family member of an offender, you will find useful
information on our website:
[3]http://www.corrections.govt.nz/working_w...
If you are looking for information about managing offenders in the
community, visit:
[4]http://www.corrections.govt.nz/working_w...
Once again, thank you for contacting us. We will respond to your query as
soon as we are able. Please note that due to the high volume of emails we
receive, it may take us some time to respond to you, however every effort
will be made to comply with the timeframes outlined in the Privacy Act
1993 and the Official information Act 1982.
Kind regards,
[5][Department of Corrections request email]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The
information in this message is the property of the New Zealand Department
of Corrections. It is intended only for the person or entity to which it
is addressed and may contain confidential or privileged material. Any
review, storage, copying, editing, summarising, transmission,
retransmission, dissemination or other use of, by any means, in whole or
part, or taking any action in reliance upon, this information by persons
or entities other than intended recipient are prohibited. If you received
this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from all
computers.
References
Visible links
1. http://www.corrections.govt.nz/
2. http://www.corrections.govt.nz/informati...
3. http://www.corrections.govt.nz/working_w...
4. http://www.corrections.govt.nz/working_w...
5. mailto:[Department of Corrections request email]
From: Info@Corrections
Department of Corrections
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Response C82913.pdf
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Dear Ti Lamusse
Please find attached the Department of Corrections response to your email
of 16 January 2017.
Yours sincerely
Ministerial Services
Department of Corrections Ara Poutama Aotearoa
Mayfair House | 44-52 The Terrace | Private Box 1206 | Wellington
[1]1 [2]4,3,2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The
information in this message is the property of the New Zealand Department
of Corrections. It is intended only for the person or entity to which it
is addressed and may contain confidential or privileged material. Any
review, storage, copying, editing, summarising, transmission,
retransmission, dissemination or other use of, by any means, in whole or
part, or taking any action in reliance upon, this information by persons
or entities other than intended recipient are prohibited. If you received
this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from all
computers.
References
Visible links
1. http://www.corrections.govt.nz/
2. file:///tmp/foiextract20170214-38-2q5mci#MicrosoftOfficeMap0
Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
I know the requester has found out (though they weren't informed by Corrections), but for the benefit of anyone else following this request, the Department of Corrections has published 9 of these reports on their website: http://www.corrections.govt.nz/resources...
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence
Offensive? Unsuitable?
Requests for personal information and vexatious requests are not considered valid requests for Official Information (read more).
If you believe this request is not suitable, you can report it for attention by the site administrators
Report this request
Luke C left an annotation ()
I'm not sure your refinement is narrow enough, as it still deals with the 50 or more reports. It doesn't reduce the number of reports the Department has to retrieve and examine. In a way, it makes it slightly more difficult, because you want particular information from each of the reports (prison, etc) which may have to be manually identified by an official (i.e. human). Additionally, you wanted the executive summary, so that summary (which is probably 1 page) would need to be scanned or extracted from those reports.
Better refinements seek to narrow the number of documents that need to be manually reviewed. So a date range, subject/topic, keywords appearing in the report, or name of facility/prison may be helpful in achieving this.
A phone call to the Department's official correspondence unit to discuss how best to refine the request could be fruitful.
Link to this