Number of Unatural Deaths In Custody in Prisons
Ian Andrews made this Official Information request to New Zealand Police
The request was refused by New Zealand Police.
From: Ian Andrews
Dear New Zealand Police,
Please provide the dates and Prison name for each unnatural death in custody reported to Police by the Department of Corrections during the 2016 calendar year .
Yours faithfully,
Ian Andrews
New Zealand Police
Hi Ian,
Thank you for the email. Your request has been forwarded to the
appropriate department to answer.
Kind Regards,
Public Info Team.
-----Ian Andrews <[FOI #5310 email]> wrote:
-----
To: OIA/LGOIMA requests at New Zealand Police <[New Zealand Police request email]>
From: Ian Andrews <[FOI #5310 email]>
Date: 31/01/2017 06:55PM
Subject: Official Information request - Number of Unatural Deaths In
Custody in Prisons
Dear New Zealand Police,
Please provide the dates and Prison name for each unnatural death in
custody reported to Police by the Department of Corrections during the
2016 calendar year .
Yours faithfully,
Ian Andrews
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From: SEDGWICK, Alexandria
New Zealand Police
Dear Mr Andrews
On behalf of the Commissioner, I acknowledge your request of 31 January
2017. You asked for ‘the dates and Prison name for each unnatural death in
custody reported to Police by the Department of Corrections during the
2016 calendar year’.
Your request is being actioned and you will be responded to in accordance
with the provisions of the Official Information Act 1982.
Kind regards
[1]http://nzpintranet/resources/Secure%20Im... Ali Sedgwick
Ministerial Services Advisor |
Ministerial Services | New Zealand
Police
E:
[2][email address]
Police National Headquarters, 180
Molesworth Street, Thorndon, PO Box
3017, Wellington 6011
[3]www.police.govt.nz
===============================================================
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From: THOMSON, Raewyn
New Zealand Police
Dear Mr Andrews
I refer to your Official Information Act request of 31 January 2017. You
requested the following information:
“Please provide the dates and Prison name for each unnatural death in
custody reported to Police by the Department of Corrections during the
2016 calendar year .”
Pursuant to section 15A of the Official Information Act 1982, I advise you
of the requirement to extend the time limit to respond to your requests.
The period of the extension is until 16 March 2017.
The reason for the extension is that the time required for the
consultations necessary to make a decision on the request, is such that a
proper response cannot reasonably be made within the original time limit.
You have the right, under section 28(3) of the Official Information Act
1982, to ask the Ombudsman to investigate and review my decision to extend
the time limit for deciding upon your request.
Yours sincerely
[1]New Zealand Raewyn Thomson
Police Logo Ministerial Services Advisor | Ministerial Services | New
Zealand Police
E: [2][email address]
Police National Headquarters, 180 Molesworth Street,
Thorndon, PO Box 3017, Wellington 6011
[3]www.police.govt.nz
===============================================================
WARNING
The information contained in this email message is intended for the
addressee only and may contain privileged information. It may also be
subject to the provisions of section 50 of the Policing Act 2008, which
creates an offence to have unlawful possession of Police property. If you
are not the intended recipient of this message or have received this
message in error, you must not peruse, use, distribute or copy this
message or any of its contents.
Also note, the views expressed in this message may not necessarily reflect
those of the New Zealand Police. If you have received this message in
error, please email or telephone the sender immediately
References
Visible links
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.police.govt.nz/
From: THOMSON, Raewyn
New Zealand Police
[1]New Zealand Raewyn Thomson
Police Logo Ministerial Services Advisor Ministerial Services | New
Zealand Police
E: [2][email address]
Police National Headquarters, 180 Molesworth Street,
Thorndon, PO Box 3017, Wellington 6011
[3]www.police.govt.nz
===============================================================
WARNING
The information contained in this email message is intended for the
addressee only and may contain privileged information. It may also be
subject to the provisions of section 50 of the Policing Act 2008, which
creates an offence to have unlawful possession of Police property. If you
are not the intended recipient of this message or have received this
message in error, you must not peruse, use, distribute or copy this
message or any of its contents.
Also note, the views expressed in this message may not necessarily reflect
those of the New Zealand Police. If you have received this message in
error, please email or telephone the sender immediately
References
Visible links
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.police.govt.nz/
Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
Also, you may already be aware of this, but the Department of Corrections has published data on the number of unnatural deaths in prisons from 1996/97-2014/15: http://www.corrections.govt.nz/resources...
Unfortunately, it appears a placeholder PDF has been uploaded in place of the spreadsheet containing the raw data.
Ian Andrews left an annotation ()
To Mark Hanna . I need to have the statistics by prison , not aggregated . Since I didn't request names & hundreds are held at each prison , I can't see how any inmates privacy would be breached . I did actually request the same information last month from the Dept of Corrections and received the identical answer . Both refusals are now with the Ombudsman .
Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
Thanks Ian, I hadn't realised you'd already tried the Department of Corrections. Best of luck with getting this information released.
Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
Kia ora Ian,
Data has been made available this afternoon on the Corrections website that includes some of the information you had requested. The spreadsheet that's been uploaded has sheets for each year (it appears the 2015/2016 year is marked as YTD which I believe means "year-to-date") that breaks down deaths by whether they were natural or unnatural and also by prison.
Here's a link to the page where you can find this spreadsheet 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
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Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
It would not be unreasonable for anonymised data to be released in this case.
There may be cases where the numbers are small enough to be identifiable when the name of each prison is specified, however, and it's reasonably for privacy to be considered in those cases. For example, if there has only been one death at a particular prison during 2016 then the requested data would specify whether that particular person's death was considered "unnatural".
There are ways around this privacy issue, however, and it doesn't sound as though NZ Police has considered them. These include providing the numbers in aggregate instead of per prison, or making small numbers ambiguous (e.g. reporting "<3" for values of 0, 1, or 2, which has been done previously by ACC to protect privacy).
I'd recommend you complain to the Ombudsman. You may also try sending the same request to the Department of Corrections, why may be more appropriate when it comes to releasing data on the number of unnatural deaths in prisons.
Link to this