Corrections (Management of Prisoners, and Prisoners’ Property) Amendment Bill
This bill changes how New Zealand prisons manage their most dangerous prisoners and updates rules for all prisoners. It creates a formal process to label certain prisoners as 'designated-management prisoners' — meaning they need extra restrictions because they pose an extreme risk. It also bans prolonged solitary confinement and requires all prisoners to have at least 10 hours of meaningful human contact every two weeks. It gives prison managers more tools to control prisoner bank accounts to stop money laundering, and allows courts to order the destruction of a dead terrorist prisoner's belongings.
What this affects
Tap a topic to see how this bill touches it, and the parts of the text that show it.
The bill creates new rules for managing the most dangerous prisoners in New Zealand, including a formal process to place them under stricter conditions, and expands the reasons prisons can separate prisoners from others.
the chief executive may make an interim designation or a final designation designating as a designated-management prisoner a person who … meets the test for designation
new section 58(1)(c) to (e) enables the prison manager to direct that the opportunity of a prisoner to associate with other prisoners be restricted or denied if … offences (other than offences against discipline) would otherwise be committed … a prisoner or another person would otherwise be radicalised, or recruited to an ideology … a prisoner or another person would otherwise be recruited into an organised criminal group
The Bill explicitly prohibits prolonged solitary confinement … prisoners must be given the opportunity to receive at least 10 hours of meaningful human contact in a 14-day period
Progress through Parliament
Have your say
This bill is open for public submissions to the Justice Committee. Anyone can tell the committee what they think, and you don’t need to be an expert. Submissions close 9 June 2026.
Bill text sourced from legislation.govt.nz (Parliamentary Counsel Office). Arapono’s summary and breakdown are drafted with AI grounded in that official text and reviewed by an Arapono editor for accuracy and neutrality before publishing. Arapono is non-partisan and takes no position on this bill.