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Tony Wall05:00, May 31 2021
MARK TAYLOR / STUFF
Rachel Edge says her son, Travis, did four months in solitary confinement at Auckland South Corrections Facility.
Four years ago, an international report slammed New Zealand’s over-use of solitary confinement in prisons. Since Labour came to power, the practice has only increased, driving some to despair. National Correspondent Tony Wall and data journalist Felippe Rodrigues investigate. Travis Edge is a gang member who’s been in and out of prison most of his adult life. “My son’s a little s.,” says his mother, registered nurse Rachel Edge. “I’ve rung the police on him before, when he’s deserved it. He’s a little s., but he’s my little s., and when I see injustice being done, I fight like a pitbull.”
Killer Venod Skantha s death in custody forces change
13 May, 2021 05:55 PM
3 minutes to read
The former doctor convicted of murdering a Dunedin teenager died in prison. Video / NZ Herald
Otago Daily Times
By: Daisy Hudson
The sudden death of a Dunedin murderer behind bars has sparked a life-saver change to national court processes.
Venod Skantha, who was convicted of murdering Dunedin teenager Amber-Rose Rush in 2018, is believed to have taken his own life at Otago Corrections Facility in mid-April, just hours after learning of a Court of Appeal decision upholding his conviction.
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His death revealed the courts did not inform prisons when a judgment was released.
Photo: 123RF
Two separate reports by the Office of the Children s Commissioner into the Mothers with Babies Unit (MBU) in prisons have found multiple incidents where women were handcuffed before, during and after giving birth.
A 2019 report into the MBU in Auckland found female prisoners were handcuffed in labour or soon after birth in hospital.
A 2020 report into a Christchurch unit found handcuffing shortly after giving birth and while in the late stages of pregnancy.
It is illegal for female prisoners who are giving birth to be restrained, and Corrections policy states that where a medical professional says a woman is in labour, restraints must be removed.