Al Noor Mosque a week after the Christchurch terror attacks which killed 51 people. Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
A prison unit for dangerous offenders set up in the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks has been made permanent.
It comes as more prisoners are at risk of becoming radicalised or holding extremist views.
In a briefing to its incoming minister, written at the end of last year and made public on Thursday, the Department of Corrections said the Prisoners of Extreme Risk Unit and a related department had been made permanent. The document did not outline when the decision had been made.
The unit was set up in 2019, in response to the Christchurch terror attacks during March of that year - 51 people were killed and dozens more injured, while the man behind the attacks was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The unit holding New Zealand's highest risk prisoners is located at Auckland Prison, and is managed by specially trained staff.
Meanwhile, the Prisoners of Extreme Risk Directorate was set up to support the management of prisoners held in the extreme risk unit, as well other high-risk people in other regions.
"There are relatively small subsets of people in prison requiring additional measures in order to be safely managed. For the most part this is due to the ongoing risk of serious violence that they present, which requires additional management safeguards; however, this can also be due to their capability to influence others to engage in serious violence or threats to prison," the briefing said.
Corrections told its new minister that more prisoners were at risk of becoming radicalised.
"In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of people we manage who are identified as potentially holding extremist views or displaying risk factors and indicators specific to radicalisation or violent extremism," it said.
"We are also one of the government agencies dealing with the emergence of new, more sophisticated gangs and domestic and transnational organised crime groups. Organised crime is a corrupting influence worldwide, undermining community wellbeing, proper governance, economic development, and national security. We work with intelligence agencies across government to counter these risks."
Corrections was also "supporting significant across government counter terrorism efforts", the document said, and was one of the agencies helping to implement the recommendations made by the 2020 Royal Commission of Inquiry report into the terrorist attack.