Nearly one in five prisoners in New Zealand have not received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and prisoner advocates say that is not good enough.
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Close to 20 percent (19.39 percent) of New Zealand's prison population are not vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Corrections officers are among staff promoting the vaccine rollout to inmates, but lawyer and prison reform advocate Nigel Hampton QC wants Corrections to enlist more help from outside prisons.
More than 7600 people are locked up in the country's prisons, according to recent figures, and of these 1483 have not had a single dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
"Something like 20 percent unvaccinated, that's much higher than the general population," Hampton, who is the patron of the Howard League, said.
It was concerning particularly given the conditions prisoners lived in, Hampton said.
"Prisoners are in a very constrained environment, mostly spent indoors, and in some institutions spend up to 23 hours inside and locked up. There is still a degree of double-bunking. Even if they're not double-bunking they're in close proximity," he said.
The Department of Corrections has dealt with 2249 cases in prison since March 2020. Most of those occurred this year, with more than 2000 cases since mid-February.
National Māori Pandemic group co-leader and Māori health leader Dr Rawiri McKree Jansen said having so many inmates unvaccinated increased the risk of outbreak and the risk to Māori.
"Māori are over imprisoned, that's clear. So, the data that we can see on vaccinations gives concern, I think, for the Māori population that we're at significant risk, and the prison populations are more than usually vulnerable," he said.
Jansen has visited six prisons to speak to inmates about the Covid-19 vaccine.
"For some of them, they have predictably very low trust in authorities. There's a lot of background of distrust and conflict so it might be that information is contested. It's important that they get the opportunity, in my view, to be able to talk that through with a health professional that they might trust," Jansen said.
But there is concern that prisoners might not be talking to those they trust, but rather to medical staff and officers that work for Corrections.
Corrections deputy national commissioner Leigh Marsh said it had worked hard to put in place extensive plans to manage the risk presented by Covid-19 including separating new inmates for seven days in a MIQ-like separation unit and a one-on-one consultation with a medical professional.
Marsh said once in prison, promotion and communication around vaccination continued.
"Our Corrections officers and other staff within the sites will be promoting the vaccine programme across all prison units. The medical staff aren't limited to the separation unit. They engage with prisoners throughout their entire time with us for routine checkups and other medical reasons for consults. They will continue to talk to prisoners that they know haven't had a vaccine."
Asked if Corrections officers were the most appropriate staff to be involved in this work, Marsh said they were.
"The Corrections officer is really is a role model in that environment. They're engaging with them on a daily basis. They're the ones that are there first thing in the morning. So if you think about it they're a really appropriate person to be encouraging and engaging a prisoner towards a particular programme."
Hampton disagreed and wanted Corrections to change its approach. He said trust was a key barrier and Corrections needed more help from outside.
"They should be looking at how they have been engaging, and try to work out a strategy that does not involve prison officers and does not involve prison medical staff. Go outside that and engage other people to do this work."
Corrections said the prison population changes daily and those coming in were from segments of society that were vaccine-hesitant which had distrust in government systems. The department said those people were more likely not to engage in a vaccination programme.