Corrections Act 2004

Corrections system - Coercive powers - Alcohol and drugs

124: Prisoner may be required to submit to drug or alcohol test

You could also call this:

"Prisoners might have to take a drug or alcohol test if they break rules or are chosen randomly."

If you are a prisoner, an officer can ask you to take a drug or alcohol test in certain situations. You might be asked to take a test if the prison manager thinks you have broken a rule, such as those in section 129 or section 130(1). You can also be asked to take a test if your name is picked for a random test.

You can be asked to take a test if you are in a programme to help you stop using drugs or alcohol, and you have agreed to take tests as part of that programme. If you have already taken a test, but the prison manager thinks the sample you gave might be fake or contaminated, you can be asked to take another test. However, if you are temporarily released from prison under section 62, you cannot be made to take a test while you are out.

When you are no longer temporarily released, you can be made to take a test. You will not be asked to give a blood sample, but you might be asked to give another type of sample, like saliva or urine. The officer can only ask you to take a test in the situations allowed by the rules, and they must follow any limitations set by regulations.

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This page was last updated on 6 August 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM296097.

Topics:

Crime and justice > Criminal lawCrime and justice > Police and safetyHealth and wellbeing > Mental health

123: Chief executive must issue drug and alcohol strategy, or

"The boss of corrections must make a plan to help prisoners with drug and alcohol problems."

125: Obligations of persons carrying out procedure, or

"What happens when a corrections officer asks you to do a procedure"

Part 2Corrections system
Coercive powers: Alcohol and drugs

124Prisoner may be required to submit to drug or alcohol test

An officer may, in any of the situations referred to in subsection (2) and subject to any limitations prescribed by regulations, require a prisoner to submit to any prescribed procedure for the purpose of detecting whether or not the prisoner has used drugs, consumed alcohol, or both.
The situations referred to in subsection (1) are as follows:
if the prison manager suspects, on reasonable grounds, that the prisoner has committed an offence against section 129 or section 130(1):
if the prisoner's name has been selected under a random-testing programme established by regulations made under this Act for purposes set out in those regulations:
if the prisoner is a voluntary participant in any programme, regime, or custodial arrangement—
1. that has as one of its aims the reduction of drug and alcohol use among prisoners; and
2. under which the prisoner agrees to submit, on demand made under this section, to any prescribed procedure:
if the prisoner has submitted to a prescribed procedure under this section by supplying a sample and the prison manager believes, on reasonable grounds, that the sample supplied is dilute, tainted, or otherwise contaminated.

Despite subsection (1), a person may not be required to submit to a prescribed procedure under this section if he or she is for the time being temporarily released from custody under section 62.
Nothing in subsection (3) prevents a person from being required to submit to a prescribed procedure under this section when the person ceases to be on temporary release from custody under section 62.
No procedure may be prescribed that requires any prisoner to supply a sample of his or her blood, but nothing in this subsection limits the power to prescribe any procedure that requires a prisoner to supply any other type of sample (including, without limitation, a sample of saliva or urine, or other bodily sample).

Compare

1954 No 51 ss 36BB, 45(22)–(23A)

Notes

Section 124(1): amended, on 5 March 2013, by section 32(1) of the Corrections Amendment Act 2013 (2013 No 5).
Section 124(2)(a): amended, on 5 March 2013, by section 32(2) of the Corrections Amendment Act 2013 (2013 No 5).
Section 124(2)(c)(i): amended, on 3 April 2009, by section 20(1) of the Corrections Amendment Act 2009 (2009 No 3).
Section 124(2)(d): inserted, on 3 April 2009, by section 20(2) of the Corrections Amendment Act 2009 (2009 No 3).