The Government is considering law changes in a bid to urgently lower the prison population - but it's refusing to provide details of what those changes might be.

Heavily redacted documents released to Newshub Nation highlight the "severe capacity pressures" faced by the Department of Corrections.

The current prison population is almost 10,800 and is now projected to reach 13,400 by 2027.

Labour's goal is to lower the prison population 30 percent over the next 15 years.

In the documents the Government is warned if it doesn't want to accept further deterioration in jail conditions and "ultimately a failure of the prison system" the projected inmate population must drop by a specified amount. However it's keeping that vital figure a secret too, blacking it out in the documents released to Newshub Nation.

