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Prisoner's rights

Chapters in this topic

  • Dealing with government agencies
  • Limitations on the government: your minimum rights
  • Challenging decisions and conduct of government agencies
  • Getting information from the government
  • Activism
  • Protesting and organising: Fundamental rights
  • Whenua Māori me Te Tiriti o Waitangi: Land occupations and claims under the Treaty
  • Organising a protest: Some rules you might need to comply with
  • Protests and the general criminal law
  • Different types of protests
  • Surveillance and monitoring of activists by the state
  • Where to go for support
  • Legal Aid and other legal help
  • Overview
  • Criminal Legal Aid: if you’ve been charged with a crime
  • Family/civil Legal Aid: For non-criminal cases
  • Challenging a Legal Aid decision
  • The Disputes Tribunal
  • The Disputes Tribunal: what it is, what it covers
  • Making a claim
  • Defending a claim
  • The Disputes Tribunal hearings
  • The Tribunal's decision
  • Challenging a Disputes Tribunal decision
  • Enforcing Disputes Tribunal Orders
  • Discrimination
  • Overview of the anti-discrimination laws
  • The illegal grounds of discrimination
  • Areas of life where discrimination is illegal
  • Taking action: What you can do if you're discriminated against
  • Sex, gender and sexual orientation
  • Overview
  • Changing my legal documents
  • Human rights and discrimination
  • Getting healthcare
  • Laws that affect queer people
  • Privacy and information
  • Overview of the privacy and information laws
  • Rules for when people collect information about you
  • Requirements about storing information and keeping it secure
  • Restrictions on people using and giving out your information
  • How you can access your information and correct it if necessary
  • Special privacy rules for specific areas and issues
  • Complaining about a breach of your privacy
  • Decision making and powers of attorney
  • Overview
  • Enduring powers of attorney: Planning ahead by choosing someone to make decisions for you
  • Family Court orders for your welfare and property: How decisions can be made when there's no EPA
  • Donating organs: Who decides
  • Wills
  • Introduction
  • Euthanasia and assisted dying
  • Making a will
  • Keeping your will up-to-date
  • Challenges to your will
  • Relationships and break-ups
  • Marriages, civil unions and de facto relationships
  • Separating
  • Divorce: Getting a “Dissolution” Order
  • Dividing your property when you split up (“Relationship property”)
  • “Maintenance”: Financial support from your ex-partner
  • Dealing with Oranga Tamariki / Ministry for Children
  • Overview
  • Complaints and investigations
  • If Oranga Tamariki deals with you outside the court system
  • If Oranga Tamariki takes you to court
  • If Oranga Tamariki takes urgent action
  • How to challenge decisions by Oranga Tamariki or the Family Court
  • Rights in care and protection residences
  • Making historic abuse claims
  • Parents, guardians and caregivers
  • Guardianship of children
  • Paternity
  • Abortion (“Termination”)
  • Adoption
  • Surrogacy and IVF
  • The Family Court
  • Care arrangements when parents have separated
  • Relocation disputes and international child abduction
  • Child support
  • Family violence and elder abuse
  • Protections against family violence
  • Police Safety Orders: Immediate, short-term protection against family violence
  • Applying for a Protection Order: Long-term protection against family violence
  • What a Protection Order does
  • Breaches of Protection Orders: When the other person doesn't obey the order
  • How and when a Protection Order ends
  • Challenging a Protection Order
  • Special employment rights and protections when there's family violence
  • Protection for older people against abuse or neglect
  • A death in the family
  • Overview
  • Confirming and registering the death
  • Funerals and tangihanga
  • Burial and cremation
  • Dealing with the deceased's property: Wills, intestacy, and small estates
  • Challenging a will
  • Financial support for bereaved families
  • Disability rights
  • Rights that are recognised internationally: The UN Disability Convention
  • Decision making: When others can legally make decisions for you
  • Employment: Access to jobs and protection against discrimination
  • Access to shops, transport and other services
  • Your rights to use New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL)
  • Renting a flat: Access to housing and accommodation
  • Benefits and compensation: What you're entitled to from Work and Income and ACC
  • Health and disability services: Your rights and how to enforce them
  • Education: Access and learning support for disabled and Deaf students
  • Mental health
  • Overview of the mental health laws
  • The compulsory assessment process
  • Compulsory Treatment Orders
  • The role of family/whānau in compulsory assessment and treatment
  • Your rights as a mental health patient
  • Reviews and appeals
  • Accident compensation (ACC)
  • Overview of the ACC scheme
  • When you're covered by ACC, and when you're not
  • ACC entitlements: Treatment, compensation and other support
  • Christchurch shootings: Support for victims
  • Making a claim and dealing with ACC
  • Challenging an ACC decision
  • Starting and leaving a job
  • Your legal rights as a worker: Where they come from
  • Different types of employment agreements
  • Starting work and negotiating an agreement
  • Probation and trial periods
  • Union rights
  • Leaving or losing your job
  • Migrants and other vulnerable workers
  • When you're not an “employee”: Differences between employees, contractors and volunteers
  • Sex workers: Your rights
  • Employment conditions and protections
  • Overview
  • Your pay
  • Hours, shifts and breaks
  • Taking leave
  • Parental leave and parental leave payments
  • Your wellbeing at work
  • Whistle-blower protections
  • Resolving employment problems
  • Taking action through a personal grievance
  • Being fired unfairly: “Unjustified dismissal”
  • Unfair treatment, discrimination or harassment at work
  • Standing up for workers' rights: Union rights and health and safety
  • Pay equity
  • Disputes about your employment agreement
  • Unpaid wages: Taking action to get your pay
  • The legal process for dealing with employment problems
  • Labour inspectors
  • Dealing with Work and Income
  • Overview and key words
  • How to apply for a benefit
  • Types of main benefits
  • Getting ongoing extra help
  • One-off payments for immediate and essential needs
  • Trouble with Work and Income: Penalties, investigations and overpayments
  • Challenging Work and Income decisions: Reviews and appeals
  • Consumer protection
  • Automatic guarantees when buying from a business
  • Fair Trading Act: Protections against misleading or unfair trading
  • Buying and selling privately
  • Uninvited sales, goods, and services
  • Extended warranties
  • Quotes and estimates
  • Different payment methods
  • Buying a motor vehicle
  • Credit and debt
  • Credit contracts: Hire purchase, loans and other credit
  • Lenders: Their responsibilities to you
  • Your rights and obligations: When you can cancel a credit contract
  • Guarantors
  • If things go wrong
  • When you can't pay your debts: Bankruptcy and other options
  • Tenancy and housing
  • Introduction
  • Who's covered by the minimum tenancy protections
  • Moving in
  • Rent, bond and other costs
  • Living in your house or flat
  • Moving out
  • Boarding houses: Renting a room
  • Problems with your landlord
  • State and community housing
  • Neighbourhood life
  • Dogs and other animals
  • Noise
  • Begging, busking and sleeping rough
  • Outdoor fires
  • Trespassing
  • Fences
  • Trees
  • Immigration
  • Overview of New Zealand's immigration system
  • Accessing the immigration system: Who can apply for a visa and who can't
  • Travelling to and entering New Zealand
  • Temporary Visas: Working, studying or visiting for a limited time
  • Residence Class Visas: Living in New Zealand permanently
  • Family violence, vulnerable migrants, and other special visa policies
  • If you're here illegally: Understanding your options
  • Deportation: Being made to leave New Zealand
  • Becoming a New Zealand citizen
  • Immigration advisers: Your rights when getting advice
  • Refugees
  • Overview
  • Who qualifies as a “refugee”
  • How to claim refugee status: The process
  • Appeals: What you can do if you're refused refugee status
  • The UNHCR Refugee Quota
  • Family of refugees: Special visa categories
  • Deportation of refugees
  • Police powers
  • Entry powers: When the police can come into your home
  • Search powers: When the police can search you, your home or your things
  • Being questioned by the police
  • Being arrested or held (detained) by the police: Their powers and your rights
  • Surveillance powers
  • Police use of guns
  • DNA samples: When you have to give a sample
  • Information the police hold about you: How to get access to it
  • Complaining about the police
  • Driving and traffic law
  • Enforcement powers of police and parking wardens
  • General driving offences
  • Drink/drug driving
  • Street-racing and “cruising”
  • Accidents: Driver responsibilities
  • Court processes: How driving offences are dealt with
  • Losing your licence: Suspensions and disqualifications
  • Losing your vehicle: Impounding and confiscation
  • Getting towed: Your rights when dealing with tow-truck operators
  • Riding buses and trains without paying (“Fare evasion”)
  • Skateboards, scooters and mobility devices
  • The criminal courts
  • Overview of how the criminal courts work
  • How criminal cases begin: Pleading guilty/not guilty, bail, and name suppression
  • Ways to stay out of court: Diversion and Restorative Justice
  • Specialist Courts
  • The lead-up to the trial: Pre-trial processes
  • The trial
  • Sentencing: The judge's decision about punishment
  • Victims
  • Juries
  • The clean slate scheme
  • Common crimes
  • Overview
  • How criminal sentencing works
  • Shoplifting
  • Tagging and graffiti
  • Assault
  • Pāua poaching and other fisheries offences
  • Drug offences
  • Bullying, harassment and sexual harm
  • Getting protection under the Harassment Act
  • Going to the police: When the criminal law can help with harassment
  • Cyberbullying: Protections against online/digital harassment
  • Sexual harm
  • Before prison: The criminal court process
  • Housing and debt
  • Family matters
  • Starting your sentence
  • Working, studying and other activities on the inside
  • Visits, phone calls and mail
  • Health and disability in prison
  • Discipline and punishments inside prison
  • Making complaints
  • Transfers
  • Release from prison
  • Support
  • Pregnancy Rights
  • Introduction
  • Sexual Health
  • Some options after a positive test
  • Healthcare
  • Education when you’re under 18
  • Housing
  • Work
  • The other parent
  • Caring for a child
  • Dealing with Oranga Tamariki
  • Legal Aid
  • Te Tiriti o Waitangi in schools
  • Enrolment, attendance, and the school system
  • School governance and management
  • Health, safety, and wellbeing
  • Discipline and rules
  • Stand-downs, suspensions, exclusions and expulsions
  • Information and privacy
  • Whānau and schools
  • Raising concerns and making complaints
  • Disaster Relief

    • Legal Aid

    Overview

    If you need a lawyer you might be able to get legal aid. Legal aid will help pay for your lawyer’s fees and you wont need to pay it back. If you are on a benefit you will usually be able to get legal aid.

    There are two types of legal aid – Civil/Family Legal Aid and Criminal Legal Aid.

    Civil/Family legal aid is to help with the legal costs of bringing or defending a civil case (for example, if you take your boss to the Employment Relations Authority) or a case in the Family Court (for example, a Parenting Order).

    For more information see the chapter “Legal Aid and other legal help” in the Community Law Manual. You can also contact your nearest Community Law Centre.

    Next Section | Where to go for more support

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    Where to go for more support

    Community Law

    www.communitylaw.org.nz

    Your local Community Law Centre can provide initial free legal advice and information.

    Also available as a book

    Pregnancy Rights

    A basic, plain language guide that contains practical answers to questions about pregnancy and the law. It covers sex and consent, options after a positive pregnancy test, what help you can get with school, work, and parenting and more. Pregnancy Rights is written for young pregnant people, their whānau and advocates.

    Buy Pregnancy Rights

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