Serco foreshadows more claims to come over Mt Eden fight club fall-out

Monday 15th February 2016

Serco New Zealand indicated more litigation is on the cards though not relating to a Department of Corrections report into organised fighting at Mount Eden Correctional Facility, which the private prison operator is trying to get re-written through a judicial review at the High Court in Wellington.

In today's hearing, when asked by Justice Karen Clark about sources of information for the prison operator's internal investigation into organised violence at the remand facility, counsel Hayden Wilson said it was difficult to say because elements were privileged.

"There's potential for a further claim after the issues that have arisen," Wilson told the court. "Not in relation to any matters that form, ultimately, part of the chief inspector's report."

Serco took over the management of the Mt Eden in 2011, after winning a $300 million, 10-year contract. The discovery of fighting footage uploaded to the YouTube streaming video website triggered an investigation into organised fighting and access to contraband in the prison, and came at a time when Serco’s contract was up for review.

The company has since lost the Mt Eden contract, though that hasn’t affected its management of the Wiri facility in South Auckland, and doesn’t bar it from bidding for future work.

Serco wants the Corrections Department report rewritten after it gets adequate opportunity to respond to information the chief investigator relied on from anonymous interviews with prisoners and ex-prisoners, which Wilson said breached Serco’s right to natural justice, and erred in law by failing to take into account two earlier reports on violence both at Mt Eden and across the wider prison estate.

Departing solicitor-general Mike Heron QC told the court Serco's rights to natural justice weren't breached as it had adequate opportunity to provide input into the report, and that the prison operator didn't dispute the document's findings.

"Serco's complaint is really about tone and language of the report, while accepting the majority of the report's recommendations and findings," Heron said.

Heron defended the anonymous interviews of 48 prisoners and 42 staff underpinning parts of the report, saying the nature of incarceration leaves those prisoners vulnerable to retribution even in a process such as this investigation, that wouldn't obviously appear to have repercussions for someone talking to officials.

The hearing is set down for two days and continues tomorrow (Tuesday).

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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