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Crimes Act 1961

Crimes affecting the administration of law and justice - Escapes and rescues

121: Assisting escape from lawful custody

You could also call this:

"Helping someone escape from prison or police is a serious crime"

Illustration for Crimes Act 1961

If you help someone escape from prison or from a police officer, you can go to prison for up to 7 years. You can also go to prison for up to 7 years if you are a police officer or a prison officer and you let someone escape on purpose. This rule applies even if the person is being held in a place that is not a traditional prison.

If you are a security officer, as defined in section 3(1) of the Corrections Act 2004, and you let someone escape on purpose, you can also go to prison for up to 7 years. You can go to prison for up to 1 year if you fail to do your job and someone escapes from you. If you are holding someone in custody, even if you are not doing it properly, it is still considered lawful custody.

You should know that prison officers and police officers have a duty to keep people in custody, and if they fail to do so, they can face penalties. However, the law says that if you fail to perform your legal duty and someone escapes, you can go to prison for up to 1 year. The law is clear that helping someone escape from prison or from a police officer is a serious offence.

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This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM329019.

Topics:
Crime and justice > Criminal lawCrime and justice > Police and safety
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120: Escape from lawful custody, or

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Part 6Crimes affecting the administration of law and justice
Escapes and rescues

121Assisting escape from lawful custody

  1. Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years who—

  2. rescues any person from lawful custody, whether in a prison or not; or
    1. assists any person in escaping or attempting to escape from lawful custody, whether in a prison or not; or
      1. with intent to facilitate the escape of any person lawfully detained in a prison, conveys or causes to be conveyed into any prison any thing whatever.

        1. Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years who—

        2. being a constable who has any person in his or her lawful custody, voluntarily and intentionally permits that person to escape from such custody:
          1. being a security officer (within the meaning of section 3(1) of the Corrections Act 2004) in whose custody any person is lawfully detained, voluntarily and intentionally permits that person to escape from such custody:
            1. being an officer of a prison in which any person is lawfully detained, voluntarily and intentionally permits that person to escape from the prison.

              1. Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 1 year who, by failing to perform any legal duty, permits any person in his or her lawful custody to escape.

              2. For the purposes of this section, custody under an irregular warrant or other irregular process shall be deemed to be lawful.

              Compare
              • 1908 No 32 ss 144, 145, 146, 147, 149
              • 1954 No 51 Schedule 1
              Notes
              • Section 121(1)(a): amended, on , by section 206 of the Corrections Act 2004 (2004 No 50).
              • Section 121(1)(b): amended, on , by section 206 of the Corrections Act 2004 (2004 No 50).
              • Section 121(1)(c): amended, on , by section 206 of the Corrections Act 2004 (2004 No 50).
              • Section 121(2)(aa): inserted, on , by section 27(1) of the Penal Institutions Amendment Act 1994 (1994 No 120).
              • Section 121(2)(aa): amended, on , by section 206 of the Corrections Act 2004 (2004 No 50).
              • Section 121(2)(b): amended, on , by section 206 of the Corrections Act 2004 (2004 No 50).