Footage circulating of a prisoner receiving a tattoo from another inmate at Rimutaka prison in Upper Hutt is "totally unacceptable", the Corrections Minister says.
Corrections is investigating after prisoners posted a video on social media of an inmate getting a tattoo at Rimutaka prison. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
An almost-three minute long video uploaded to YouTube on 14 July shows a man filming himself while another man tattoos a large letter M on his leg.
Kelvin Davis said Corrections staff were made aware of the video yesterday morning.
"It's unacceptable, I expect Corrections to be onto this sort of thing. I've asked them to report back to me and I expect changes to be made," he said.
"To have gang members in a cell, chanting gang chants, covering the windows and tattooing each other is totally unacceptable. It wasn't exactly a quiet gathering so I want to know how it is that this can occur and nobody intervened."
The video has had more than 5000 views.
Mr Davis said officers were made aware just after 9am and by 10am the two men in the video were secured in a yard and a search was under way.
"As soon as Corrections found out they identified the prisoners, they located a cellphone [which is] undergoing forensic testing."
Corrections chief custodial officer Neil Beales said the ward was fully staffed and an operational review into how the contraband made its way into the prison and why staff were not aware of it, was under way.
The review would shed some light on the "concerning" incident, Mr Beales said.
"It is always a concern to me, if prisoners are allowed to congregate freely and do things like this and we are not on top of that. I need to know what time of day this was, I need to know what was happening in that unit throughout the day," he said.
"Were the staff distracted, had they been distracted by other prisoners, there's information that's still to come to light."
Rimutaka prison. Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
Mr Beales said four prisoners were found to be involved, two had been removed from the prison already and the others were in the process of being relocated.
All were charged with misconduct, he said.
"If found guilty they can be sanctioned with loss of privileges such as access to hobbies or telephone calls or visits ... or even self-confinement."
Opposition MP David Bennett said prisoners were taking advantage of a "soft on crime approach" by the government.
He questioned the timeliness of Corrections' reaction to the video.
"It's been online for two weeks, they've posted two videos in mid-July and if you go to the Facebook page of the individual involved it's got numerous photos on there from his time in Rimutaka so it's been going on for some time."
It was unknown how long the review would take.
