ABSTRACT
New Zealand has experienced a relatively low number of COVID-19 cases in the community and just one case in prisons, largely thanks to its early lockdowns which prioritised public health. However, containing the pandemic has come at considerable cost to those incarcerated, particularly as some measures enacted to keep COVID-19 out of prisons have led to a breach of international human rights standards on the prevention of torture. This chapter will review imprisonment and penal policy in New Zealand before and during the COVID-19-induced crisis, before discussing the restrictions imposed on prisoners. It will then examine the challenges to such measures by human rights and watchdog agencies, and the implications of the COVID-19 crisis for future penal policy.
