9204 (2024). Dr Tracey McLellan to the Minister of Corrections

9204 (2024). Dr Tracey McLellan to the Minister of Corrections: How many times has pepper spray been used, if any, since 27 November 2023 broken down by month, prison and number of prisoners involved?

Hon Mark Mitchell: In accordance with section 83 of the Corrections Act 2004, force (including the use of pepper spray) can only be used against people in prison when a staff member has reasonable grounds for believing that the use of physical force is reasonably necessary in self-defence, in the defence of another person or to protect the prisoner from injury; or in the case of an escape or attempted escape; or to prevent the prisoner from damaging any property; or in the case of active or passive resistance to a lawful order. I am advised that Corrections would be required to manually review each incident report to ascertain the specific number of individuals on whom pepper spray was used. This would involve substantial collation and manual analysis. I am not prepared to ask my officials to carry out this task for the purposes of this response. I refer the member to the attached table which provides the number of times pepper spray has been deployed between November 2023 and April 2024, broken down by type, month and prison.