Kiwi prisoners face longer stays behind bars without conviction

New figures have revealed the scale of the problem.

A growing backlog of court cases nationwide, made worse by Covid-19 lockdowns, is seeing hundreds face longer stays behind bars - some without conviction, new figures show.

Corazon Miller takes a look at how the backlog is impacting those working and living in our criminal justice system.

As the global pandemic got underway in 2020, thousands of prisoners were waiting on remand for their day in court - and as the nation went into lockdown and courts were shut to all but priority proceedings, the number peaked to a total of 3,487 by May 2020.

And while these figures are beginning to fall, lawyers are still reporting higher workloads. The stress of which is having an impact on their wellbeing. Meanwhile the delays are impeding thousands from getting access to the justice system in a timely manner.

An asylum seeker from Sri Lanka, and father-of-two was fleeing political persecution. He came to New Zealand seeking refuge. Instead he was surprised to find himself thrown in jail.

"They handled me very roughly, they took everything," he says. "They stripped me in front of three or four people and checked me as if I brought some drugs into the country."

He says having been tortured back home, the experience in a country he believed had a better record of human rights, "really affected" him.

The man, who ran a successful business back in Sri Lanka, found himself being treated like a criminal, his clothes stripped, his belongings taken, and thrown in a cell - for 105 days.

He was eventually released under conditions, but it's only this month, almost two years since he arrived that he finally feels free to stay. But the memory of being behind bars, remains fresh, two years on. "I still have nightmares," he says.

His story is just one of many asylum seekers believed to be held on remand each year. Information obtained by 1 NEWS under the

Official Information Act shows since 2015 a total of 63 were held on immigration-related charges, a number of these are likely to have been seeking asylum.

Their average stay almost doubling in five years, from 28 days in 2015, to 54 in 2020.

Across the wider remand population the Department of Corrections' figures paint an image of a system where people are detained and held for increasingly lengthy times before being convicted or sentenced.

In 2015 the average number of days someone was kept on remand was 63 days, growing steadily to 74 days by 2020.

For those on immigration-related charges, including a number who may be seeking asylum, their time waiting has almost doubled from 28 days to 54 in the same time period.

The longest time on remand was experienced by Kyung Yup Kim, who spent more than five years on remand, as he awaited extradition. And at least 19 others had spent in excess of two years waiting for a decision on their case since 2015.

Northland Prison saw the steepest rise in figures of those kept on remand - with figures more than triple what they were in 2016; rising from 42 to 178 in mid 2020.

At Spring Hill Correctional facility in the Waikato these figures were over double what they were in 2016 - up to 364 from 158.

Other facilities that saw significant rises were Whanganui, Waikeria and Auckland Regional Women’s Correctional Facility.

Auckland-based criminal lawyer, Jo Wickliffe, says the delays could lead to a breach of the bill of rights if those being held were unable to get timely access to a fair trial.

She says this leaves many in conditions that are worse than those of sentenced criminals.

"Because they are not sentenced prisoners they do not get access to any of the rehabilitative programmes, so they sit in prison, waiting for their day in court, with pretty much access to nothing.

"Generally the conditions are poor and they are not at all what you would expect to see in a supposedly first world country. Some of our clients have one change of clothes, the one they go in with.

"And if they have no family on the outside to bring them a change of clothes, they are in the same underwear for months."

Corrections National Commissioner Rachel Leota said, in a letter accompanying the OIA response, that the time spent on remand was dependent on how long it took for the judicial process to be completed through the courts.

"This is influenced by factors including the complexity of the case and the plea entered."

But as the numbers rose, lawyers reported struggling to keep up with demand. By December the situation was so bad it saw the profession write to the Chief High Court Judge and Chief District Court Judge about the impact on lawyers wellbeing.

"Many practitioners have indicated they are in significant need of a break over the Christmas period."

generic prison jail

Concerns they raised in the letter included being involved in back-to-back trials; a lack of back-up counsel, and little available downtime.

"Defence lawyers are concerned about the personal impact of this increased pressure, but [are] equally, if not more concerned about the impact on their clients."

It went on to say that such high workloads meant they were unable to prepare and support their clients as needed.

This led to a series of meetings across the country to discuss ways of clearing the backlog. But as Auckland District Law Society

President Marie Dyhrberg QC says a lot of work... and resource is needed to clear it.

"We were finding we were having so many cases where we had our clients on remand, the delays in getting our cases heard... [meant] by the time they got sentenced they had done well in excess of time served."

And not all who are on remand end up with convictions.

"They haven't always of course done the crime," she says.

She says there is still a critical need for more resources to help those stuck for increasingly long times on remand get access to aid.

"For those who are on legal aid, the fees for representing somebody is very low. So a lot of lawyers are saying I just can not afford to take on legal aid work when you are told you will only get paid for one visit despite the fact you might have to make eight.

"We've got to make up the backlog, and the only way to do that is full on pay the money, give the staff, give the numbers and give the facilities."

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