Bring Secure Two-Way Email to NZ Prisons

You can email someone in a New Zealand prison. They just can't email you back.

We are calling on the New Zealand Government and Department of Corrections to introduce a secure, monitored two-way email system in New Zealand prisons.

This is NOT a request for unrestricted internet access.

It is a request to modernise a communication system that already partly exists.

How it could work

✔ Approved family and friends send secure emails.
✔ All messages are screened and monitored by Corrections.
✔ Prisoners receive the messages through a secure prison system.
✔ Prisoners write their replies by hand.
✔ The handwritten reply is scanned and securely emailed back.

Simple. Secure. Monitored. Traceable.

Similar controlled prisoner communication systems already operate overseas, including Australia's eMates model.

Why does this matter?

Prison sentences can separate people from their families for years.

For children, elderly parents, people with disabilities, overseas whānau and families working shifts, maintaining regular contact can be difficult.

Phone calls can be missed. Prisons can go into lockdown. Postal mail takes time.

Family connection shouldn't disappear simply because someone is in prison.

Maintaining healthy family relationships can support wellbeing, rehabilitation and successful reintegration back into the community.

Corrections already does most of the work.

New Zealand already allows incoming emails to prisoners.

Those emails are screened, printed and delivered by Corrections.

The prisoner can write a response — but that response must then go through ordinary post.

Why not securely scan the handwritten response and return it electronically?

We believe there is a safer, faster and more modern way.

This could benefit Corrections too.

A secure electronic system could:

• reduce physical mail handling
• provide a fully monitored communication record
• reduce postal delays
• improve communication efficiency
• maintain strict security controls
• potentially operate through a user-pays model, minimising taxpayer cost

What are we asking for?

A two-year North Island pilot programme involving the North Island's prisons.

The pilot would be:

🔒 Secure and monitored
👥 Approved contacts only
✍️ Handwritten prisoner replies
📧 Secure electronic delivery
💰 Investigated under a user-pays model
📊 Independently evaluated for security, cost, family connection, rehabilitation and operational outcomes

We are not asking for unrestricted internet access.

We are not asking for social media.

We are not asking Corrections to remove security controls.

We are asking Corrections to finish what it has already started.

New Zealand already has prisoner email.

Let's make it two-way.

Sign the petition.

If you believe prisoners should be able to maintain healthy connections with their families in a safe and controlled way, please sign and share this petition.

One email can mean everything to a family waiting on the other side of the prison wall.

Let prisoners stay connected.