2 Aotearoa New Zealand’s prisons for women and the women they house 2.1 Aotearoa New Zealand’s prisons for women Women in prisons managed by the Corrections can be housed in one of three prisons for women: Arohata Women’s Prison, in Wellington10, Auckland Region Women’s Correctional Facility (ARWCF) in Manukau, South Auckland11 and Christchurch Women’s Prison, in Christchurch. The number of women in prisons at the end of 2019, the year which this report analyses, stood at 666 women, of whom 41% were on remand and 59% were sentenced. This number represents a significant reduction in the total number of women in prison, down from a high of 800 in July 2017. This is a welcome development which presents further opportunities for working with women in prison and achieving the goals outlined in Corrections’ policy statements discussed in the previous section. In terms of the length of sentences served by women, as Figure 1 shows, close to half (46%) of the women were serving sentences of two years or longer. 12% were serving sentences of up to a year. Just over 40% were on remand.12 10 The name Arohata means ‘the bridge’ in te reo Mäori and reflects the belief that the prison provides a bridge between past offending and a future in the community. Arohata Women’s Prison was built in 1944 and was originally a women’s borstal. It became a youth prison in 1981 and a women’s prison in 1987. It holds about 150 women and employs 73 staff (Corrections Website, accessed April 2021). 11 Auckland Region Women’s Correctional Facility was originally built in 2006 to accommodate 287 women and expanded in 2010 to a 456 bed multi-classification prison. According to the architectural firm which designed the prison (http://www.pp-a.com.au/portfolio/2666-auckland-regional-womens-correctionsfacility/), ‘the underlying design concept integrates operational imperatives with significant local cultural values. ARWCF is sited on a former quarry at the edge of Manukau Harbour. Matukutureia, a remnant volcanic cone, is immediately adjacent and was a culturally significant design generator. Matukutureia is the centre point of an arc extending through the ARWCF site and continuing to the harbour’s edge. This ‘Spine’ is expressed as a series of buildings linked by a continuous wall and roof plane, with courtyards between. Facilities for health, education and vocational training programs, recreation and work are included in the ‘Spine’. High security inmates are housed on one side of the ‘Spine’, low security on the other. Each cohort has equity of access.’ 12 The issue of conditions of detention for remand prisoners is beyond the scope of this study, but it should be noted that remandees are a particularly vulnerable group and are often managed in high-security settings. 17