A passenger was shocked and left feeling a tad nervous after boarding a commercial flight to find a woman seated nearby who was handcuffed and flanked by uniformed guards wearing protective vests. The woman, who was travelling from Auckland to Wellington on an Air New Zealand flight a few months ago, said there had been no communication with passengers about a prisoner, who was also seated near a young child, being on board.
In response to questions about the inmate being on the flight, Air New Zealand said it could not share details on individual passengers. But as it turns out, she is one of thousands of prisoners who have flown, commercially and privately, around New Zealand over the past five years, as inmates are moved between courts, prisons and health providers. Department of Corrections figures released to NZME under the Official Information Act revealed prisoners, more than 90 per cent of whom were male, have been transported across at least flights from through to November 8, last year, meaning multiple prisoners were on the same flight in some cases.
However, due to how Corrections extracts its data, some inmates have been counted more than once if there was more than one leg to their plane journey. While the department did not provide details on the types of offending committed by prisoners being flown, NZME is aware that among them was a young man newly convicted of murder.
He was flown commercially from New Plymouth early last year after a hearing where he was sentenced to life imprisonment. The figures show that at least of the flights during the five years were privately chartered and were commercial. But the travel costs remain unknown. The spending period covered July 1, , until around March the following year. While the recent figures show the majority of flights taken were commercial, Leigh Marsh, commissioner of custodial services, told NZME that Corrections primarily used approved airline charter companies, rather than commercial flights, for air transport.
He said Corrections ran at least two charter flights a month, subject to plane availability. Maximum security prisoners were not allowed to fly commercially and prisoners of lower classifications could only take a commercial flight if the department deemed it safe. Still, other passengers were not told if a prisoner was on board. Corrections carry out tens of thousands of prisoner escorts between prisons, courts, specialist medical facilities and rehabilitation providers each year, using various transport methods.
