5 Recorded incidents and pepper spray use 5.1 Recorded incidents The records from the three prisons revealed disciplinarian attitudes towards the women, particularly in ARWCF, and not just in the Management and Separates Units, but in Intervention and Support Units (ISU) too. According to data provided to this review, in 2019 a total of 281 incidents in the three women’s prisons were classified as ‘assaults’. Only one incident, which took place in Christchurch Women’s Prison, was classified as serious in the list of 'serious incidents' provided to me by Corrections. Arohata Prison and Christchurch Women’s Prison recorded 60 assaults each, ARWCF recorded 161 incidents classified as assaults. Of all recorded incidents recorded as ‘assaults’, 58% were by a woman on another woman, the majority of which involved fights between the women with use of force by staff ensuing. The remaining incidents involved a prisoner and a member of staff. The majority of these incidents were fairly minor, and some could only be described as ‘nuisance’. A case-by-case analysis of some of the incident reports which were available to me found that the slightest acts of perceived disobedience were often responded to harshly. Minor events were recorded as assaults and charged as such, including, for example, “Threw a hat at staff and attempted to grab at their hair”; “Refused her medication and threw the container which contained her medication back at the nurse. It missed the nurse”; “She proceeded to peel her orange and throw at staff”; “Threw jacket at nurse” (and was then charged and moved to the Management Unit); “Threw a spoon at staff which landed at officer’s stab-proof vest”; “Threw a carton of rotten milk at staff which landed on the front of one of their trousers. The prisoner claimed that the milk slipped.” 47