Amanda Hill, Lawyer. Photo: Tom Gilmartin
A lawyer for most of the clients currently being kept in New Zealand's only extreme-risk prison unit, says the destruction of records and lack of record keeping is of concern, calling it an active avoidance of scrutiny by Corrections.
The Ombudsman Peter Boshier has released a report outlining concerns about human rights abuses at Auckland Prison's Prisoners of Extreme Risk Unit - also referred to as PERU - which houses people with convictions for terrorism, violent extremism, transnational organised crime and significant, repeated violence.
There are currently 13 inmates in the PERU, which was established in 2019, including the Christchurch mosque terrorist. Boshier, whose team visited PERU four times over the past 18 months, found that records of how decisions were made to place individuals in the PERU were either absent, incomplete or lacked necessary detail.
Also that records, including body-worn camera footage was deleted following a " large-scale use of force incident ".
The report raises concerns over how prisoners come to be in the unit in the first place, why a prisoner might be segregated, and what the plan is for leaving the unit.
Amanda Hill represents nine of the 13 people in PERU, she speaks to Kathryn.
