Executive Summary Background: The report examines the use of seclusion and restraint across different detention contexts in New Zealand. It is based on visits to seventeen different places of detention including prisons, health and disability units, a youth justice residence, a children’s care and protection residence, and police custody suites, which took place between 26 October 2016 and 11 November 2016. It is also based on material provided before, during and after those visits, including some extensive data sets. The report was commissioned by the New Zealand Human Rights Commission with funding from the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture, and conducted by an independent expert, Dr Sharon Shalev, of the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford, UK. Key findings: • Overall, the data revealed a high use of seclusion and restraint in New Zealand, and an overrepresentation of ethnic minority groups, in particular Mäori, in seclusion and in prison segregation units, which is a matter of concern. In prisons, women were also much more likely than men to be segregated, and for longer periods. • Some of the forms of mechanical restraint used were inherently degrading to the individual. Of particular concern was the use of restraint or tie-down beds in prisons and the use of restraint chairs in police custody. • Stark physical environments and impoverished regimes in seclusion, secure care and segregation units, and in a number of cases no access to basic fixtures such as a call-bell to alert staff, a toilet or fresh running drinking water. • Access to basic entitlements including daily access to a shower and an hour long exercise in the fresh air were not always guaranteed. 9