Judith Collins

Wellington, Dec 18 NZPA - The Corrections Association has lost a court challenge over extended double-bunking in prisons.

In a judgment released tonight, the Employment Court found that the Department of Correction's plans to increase double-bunking at four of the country's newest prisons was not in breach of the union's collective agreement, and the department had met its consultation obligations.

Corrections Minister Judith Collins welcomed the judgment, saying extended double-bunking was needed to address a looming capacity crisis.

"Due to a lack of planning by the previous government, our prisons are forecast to run out of baseline beds around February next year," she said.

"We have been in a race against time to ensure there are enough beds to accommodate the forecast numbers of prisoners."

Corrections chief executive Barry Matthews said the extension of double-bunking was a key initiative to address increasing prisoner numbers.

"The judgment means we can now move ahead with our plans," he said.

"The department will be engaging with its unions over the implications of the judgment in progressing the steps towards extending double-bunking."

Corrections already uses double-bunking at a number of its prisons, and Ms Collins said that to ensure the safety of staff, current prisoners-to-staff ratios would be maintained when it was extended.

There would be assessment programmes to ensure prisoners were compatible for cell sharing and staff would be given extra training.