for the mentally unwell and the emphasis needs to be put on the provision of
adequate facilities and services for them, rather than using police custody as
a place of safety using police custody as a place of safety, just because it is
there and there is an absence of anything more appropriate.
■ R
ecords of the use of restraints should include the use of high-risk (strip) cells,
and clearly state the start and end time of the application of restraint and/or
placement in a high-risk cell.
■ B
ody searches must be carried out in private, and not conducted on the
general CCTV feed which can be viewed by anyone in the control room.
■ P
olice cells are inappropriate for longer stays and should only be used as
overflow for housing remanded prisoners in exceptional circumstances.
Where stays are longer, conditions and access to activities need to be
substantially enhanced.
To the NPMs
■ T
he bodies who make up New Zealand’s National Preventative Mechanism
are crucial for ensuring that all those deprived of their liberty are treated
with respect for their human dignity and free from torture and cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment. As such, they have a particularly
important role to play in monitoring places of detention. Nowhere is this
role more important that in the most hidden part of all places of detention,
namely, solitary confinement units. Training on monitoring places of detention
should be better coordinated and harmonised. All NPM bodies should have
refresher training in how to monitor places of detention.
■ N
PM members should consider the adoption of a joint approach to
monitoring the use of seclusion and restraint across their different areas
of responsibility55and promoting an agenda of reducing, and eventually
eliminating, the use of seclusion and restraint across the board, in line with
current international thinking.
■ A
ll NPM members should consider making their monitoring reports public.
55 For one example of a successful joint approach see the UK NPM’s Annual Report for 2014/15 (section
on solitary confinement). Online at: http://www.nationalpreventivemechanism.org.uk/wp-content/
uploads/2015/12/NPM-Annual-Report-2014-15-web.pdf, and the UK NPM’s Guidance: Isolation in
Detention, January 2017. Online at: http://www.nationalpreventivemechanism.org.uk/wp-content/
uploads/2017/02/NPM-Isolation-Guidance-FINAL.pdf
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