Prison conditions intolerable

TALKING POLITICS

OPINION: Actions speak louder than words, as the recent Waikeria prison siege has shown.

There had been extensive prior reports on the unsatisfactory conditions at the prison, up to and including the surprise visit to the facility by Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier last August.

After condemning the levels of prison violence and the poorly ventilated, dilapidated state of the facilities, Boshier concluded that Waikeria was ‘‘no longer fit for purpose.’’

Even so, it appears that substantive change will have come only in the wake of the rebellion, the six day standoff and the damage done to the prison’s top tier.

No doubt, the protesters will be prosecuted. Their actions cannot be condoned, partly because of the precedent this would set.

Yet surely, the conditions that culminated in the Waikeria siege cannot be condoned either, not in any civilised society.

The litany of failings detailed in the Boshier report make for shameful reading, particularly since they repeat previous critical reports on conditions in New Zealand prisons stretching all the way back to 1988, including the negative findings of a 2017 Corrections report.

Arguably, and in the light of this history of unaddressed shortcomings, the Waikeria incident might have been grounds for a ministerial resignation.

However, during and after the Waikeria standoff, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis has seemed inclined to treat the events and conditions as operational matters.

Reportedly, he is awaiting the outcome of two reviews into the Waikeria incident – one an operational inquiry by Corrections and the other a more wide-ranging, independent inquiry. Ironically, Davis had been a champion back in 2015 of the Kiwi detainees caught up in protests against conditions in Australia’s Christmas Island detainment camp.

At the time, Davis was critical of the steps taken by the Aussie authorities to quell those protests, including the alleged firing of rubber bullets at protesters.

To date, the public has been relatively sympathetic to the cause of the Waikeria protesters, perhaps in recognition that the conditions at the prison were indeed intolerable.

Presumably, the implications for Hokai Rangi, the government’s ambitious programme of prison reform, will be addressed by those dual reviews now under way.

Under this programme, the government aims to reduce the overall Ma¯ ori prison population from its current 52 per cent level, down to a point where it eventually matches the 16 per cent of the general population that Ma¯ ori currently comprise.

Between now and 2024, Hokai Rangi aims to reduce the Ma¯ ori prison intake by 10 per cent.

At Waikeria, Ma¯ ori inmates comprised 67 per cent of the prison population.

Amidst the relief that the authorities did not storm the prison to end the siege, the denial of food and water to the protesters has been criticised.

Sir Kim Workman, a former operational head of prisons at the

Justice Department, has pointed to similarities to the punitive treatment of Ma¯ ori whanau by colonial powers in the 19th century.

Allegedly, the starvation response was not in the spirit of the ‘‘humanising and healing’’ approach central to the whanaubased consultative approach of Hokai Rangi, with its intended focus on ‘‘oranga’’ or wellbeing.

Ultimately it will take actions, rather than fine words, if Hokai Rangi is to be transformed into a workable reality.

DOMINICO ZAPATA/ STUFF Major structural damage to Waikeria Prison after a fire was lit by prisoners. Some are shown here still on the roof of the prison.