The Department of Corrections is defending its treatment of prisoners after a United Nations report criticised the state of New Zealand’s detention centres.
The report said many remand prisoners and youth detainees were being held in cells for 19 hours a day, while some were being fed “frozen leftovers” and others were having to take vitamin D tablets due to a lack of sunlight.
The report was written by the UN Committee on the Prevention of Torture, which visited 35 police stations, prisons and other detention facilities in New Zealand last year. Continue reading