The Department of Corrections will conduct an urgent overhaul and review of women's prisons - ordered by the Minister in charge.
It follows revelations by RNZ of the "cruel and inhumane" treatment of Mihi Bassett and Karma Cripps, who were gassed in their cells using pepper spray and made to perform a humiliating ritual to be fed.
Prison guards threatened to pepper spray Bassett after she tried to take her own life.
Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis spoke to Corin Dann.
