November 04, 2021
Pepper spray and solitary women’s lot
New independent research for the Human Rights Commission has found wāhine Maori prisoners are far more likely to be segregated than non-Māori.
It also found excessive use of pepper spray in Auckland Region Women’s Corrections Facility.
The report titled First Do No Harm says women in prison face a range of punitive practices including the prolonged use of solitary confinement, being restrained and forcibly undressed, being forced to kneel at the back of the cell while food is delivered, being strip-searched, and, for some, being pepper-sprayed in cells with little prior attempt to de-escalate a situation first.
Report author Dr Sharon Shalev from Oxford University’s Centre for Criminology found Māori and Pacific women disproportionately face prolonged segregation, with as many as 93 percent of segregations in prison lasting 15 days or longer being of Māori or Pacific women.
Commission senior indigenous rights advisor, Jessica Ngatai, says women in prison need care, safety and to be instilled with hope to imagine a different life, rather than being retraumatised.
The report calls for an end to the use of pepper spray, an end to the use of prolonged segregation, adopting culturally responsive programmes for Māori and Pacific women and urgent training in mental health, trauma-informed practice and unconscious bias for prison staff.