Arohata Women's Prison. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Corrections may shift some inmates from Arohata Women's Prison in Wellington to other regions because of staff shortages at nearby Rimutaka Prison.
Corrections Deputy National Commissioner Leigh Marsh said about 40 women could be moved to Auckland or Christchurch over the next few months.
He said it would be a temporary move for most and all inmates would be assessed individually prior to moving to ensure they could be close to family and support if possible.
"But what we're doing is ensuring that we've got prisoners where we have staff and the facilities to give the most opportunity for rehab and unlock time and all the other things that we do," he said.
He said there were currently no inmates in the mothers and babies unit at Arohata but Corrections had a plan to re-staff it if necessary.
There were currently about 500 vacancies for custodial staff out of a total number of 4100 positions, but Marsh said there had been a good response to a recent recruitment drive.
"We've got a significant recruitment campaign in place at the moment and we've seen quite a significant uplift in our recruits coming through," he said.
"In the last month in fact we've gone up from around an average of four applications a day to seventeen and in August we've had over 500 applications for new corrections officer roles."
Marsh said Corrections was carefully deploying staff at the moment to ensure the safety of staff, the public and prisoners.