Fear as prisoners left unsupervised

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Nelson lawyers fear someone will be seriously hurt due to police court attendants leaving prisoners alone in the Nelson Court House's holding cells.

Lawyer John Sandston said he knew of two instances in the last three months where people in cells were left unsupervised by police.

Mr Sandston said a 21-year-old woman who had not paid her fines was left alone in a holding cell yesterday for more than 10 minutes.

Before Christmas a 14-year-old client on a serious aggravated robbery charge was also left alone in the holding cells for several minutes.

Mr Sandston said he was worried people unsupervised in cells could hurt themselves, as people in trouble often were despondent.

There was also potential for unsupervised people in cells to hurt others if there were more than two people in a cell and a fight broke out.

On a more basic level, it was inhumane if someone was in a cell without a toilet and they urgently needed to use one, he said.

"It's a basic human right that if you are detained in custody that you are properly monitored and it's just a tragedy waiting to happen if you aren't."

Mr Sandston said he had not seen police procedures, but believed it was standard practice to have one police attendant in court to transfer prisoners to the cell area, with another attendant being based in the holding cell area.

Mr Sandston said the issue need to be raised as he was concerned the police systems were "a bit slack".

"I know it has happened from time to time.

"This is not the only instances of it; basically they need to tighten their procedure, " he said.

He was particularly worried about the problem as some years ago he had a client who was found hanging in the Nelson police cells.

Nelson lawyer Steven Zindel said agreed a problem exists, with the court being frequently left with only one police court attendant in the cell and court area.

He estimated this happened as much as 10 per cent of the time the court was in operation.

Mr Zindel said as well as the risk of people being held in the cells hurting themselves or others, there was a risk that police officers looking after those in the cell area could get hurt.

"It just takes one bad egg and it could blow up."

The woman left unattended in the court holding cell yesterday said the situation was all right for her, "but if someone had self harm issues or suicidal issues it's pretty dangerous.

"My main concern was if there was a fire I would be stuck in there, because no-one could let me out. It's really poor management, I guess," she said.

Nelson Bays area commander Detective Inspector John Winter told the Nelson Mail he was not aware of the issue. but would be following it up.

He said he could not comment further on the issue until he had looked into it.

"I will follow it up with both of them. I'm surprised they have not raised it with me or the court staff directly at the time."

- © Fairfax NZ News