Most of the firearms were either BB guns or air rifles and were found in visitors' cars. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
At least one person each year is caught trying to take a gun into New Zealand's prisons.
On the 18 occasions firearms were found on prison grounds since 2016, two were found within a secure prison perimeter.
In August 2019, staff at Manawatū Prison found nuts, a bolt, a spring mechanism and one bullet on a person who was being brought in from the community. Corrections said when put together, these items could be made into a makeshift firearm.
In February the following year, staff at Christchurch Men's Prison found a "handmade replica handgun made out of tissue paper and glad wrap" while searching a prisoner before they entered a yard. The fake firearm could not fire ammunition - it was confiscated and disposed of.
However, most firearms were found in visitors' cars, primarily air rifles and BB guns.
Two were found in the last financial year, one at Christchurch Men's Prison and another at Waikeria (the site of the country's worst prison riot in 2020), where three lots of ammunition were also found. Further ammunition and/or explosives were found at Hawke's Bay Regional Prison, Mt Eden Corrections Facility, Northland Region Corrections Facility and Spring Hill Corrections, despite no guns being confiscated at these prisons.
Back in 2008, a group of inmates at Christchurch Men's Prison used a home-made air gun to fire at the prison building. The prisoners, who were working in the prison's engineering unit, attached a pipe to the end of an air compressor hose to fire ball bearings or other projectiles.
However, guns are one of the least frequently found weapons in prisons - the most common by far are improvised stabbing or cutting devices, with 456 of these found in the last financial year.
Corrections found fewer than 30 of each other category of weapon - including clubs, knifes, hobby tools (like chisels or screwdrivers), or other (for example, batteries in a sock).
In December, a Mt Eden prisoner was stabbed multiple times with one such "improvised weapon".
Director custodial operations David Grigg said contraband created significant safety risks in prisons, and Corrections was constantly trying to stay one step ahead of new ways to smuggle in items.
"Some people go to extreme and elaborate lengths to introduce contraband into prison. Contraband may be concealed on a person's body when they come into the prison, posted in with mail or property, thrown over perimeter fencing, or smuggled into the prison by visitors. Sometimes the people we manage place a significant amount of pressure on their partners, friends, or associates to risk attempting to bring contraband into prison for them," he said.
"When a person in prison is found to be in possession of contraband they are charged with an internal misconduct and depending on the type of the item found, they are referred to the New Zealand Police who are responsible for laying criminal charges. If a visitor is found to be in possession of contraband, they are issued a prohibition notice that prohibits the person from entering prison grounds for a specific timeframe. Depending on the type of contraband, this could be escalated to New Zealand Police."
Corrections used a range of methods to stop banned items from entering prisons, Grigg said. These included scanners and x-rays, camera surveillance and phone monitoring, and searching vehicles, mail, prisoners and their property.
"We were also the first agency in New Zealand to train our detector dogs to detect new psychoactive substances, including synthetic cannabis. Our detector dog teams have a range of searching capabilities and can also detect drugs, mobile phones, tobacco, and illicitly brewed alcohol."