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Police are playing down claims that officers in the capital are being told to consider delaying arrests due to capacity issues at Rimutaka Prison.
In an email sent on Friday by a senior sergeant and leaked to the Herald on Sunday, Wellington police officers were told repeat bail and warrant offenders may be held in police custody for prolonged periods due to the prison being near maximum occupancy.
The email said: "Repeat breach of bail and warrant offenders may be remanded in police custody for a prolonged period. Arresting officers should consider this before making an arrest."
Officers required approval from the unit sergeant and arresting officers had to call before transporting detainees, it said.
The Herald reports the arrangement would be in place until further notice.
The email says Rimutaka Prison is nearly at maximum capacity Photo: RNZ / Diego Opatowski
A police spokesperson says officers weighing up whether people need to be taken into custody was common practice.
Officers were required to consider whether any potential period of detention was in line with the seriousness and consequences of a breach of bail or warrant, they said.
Police cells were designed to hold prisoners for just a day or two, Police Association president Chris Cahill said.
He said he was surprised the prison was near capacity, given a decline in prison populations in the rest of the country.
While the issue was unlikely to endanger the public, it was not up to police to manage the prison population, he said.
Advocates for prison reform say the mismanagement of Rimutaka Prison was creating problems down the line for frontline police.
Chris Tennet of the Howard League says police cells were not equipped to hold people for longer than a day or two.
"The ultimate issue is that the prison cells are having to be kept in reserve because Rimutaka is not being managed properly and that's a head office issue, that's not the poor old prison director at Rimutaka," Tennet said.
"There is probably no easy fix."
Most bail breaches were minor and officers often used their discretion about whether to arrest on such grounds, he said.
