Dump the super jail, say experts

A group of criminal-justice experts is urging the Government to scrap plans for a $1 billion mega-prison for New Zealand’s growing inmate population.

In an open letter, 32 leading academics warn the proposed prison contradicts promises made by Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis when he was in Opposition.

They warn the prison ignores international best practice, will lead to increased criminal offending, will be inhumane and “will undermine Prime Minister [Jacinda] Ardern’s Waitangi Day commitments and intensify the mass imprisonment of Maori”.

It comes as the Labour-NZ First Government approaches a deadline, with a paper coming to Cabinet next month to seek approval for a big expansion programme for Waikeria Prison in Waikato.

A decision to expand the prison to hold up to 3000 inmates is expected to put penal policy on a track at odds with Labour’s election promises.

But in making the decision, Cabinet will have to balance changes hoped to reduce prison numbers and the expected political damage around inmates who would otherwise be in jail carrying out high-profile crimes.

It will also have to deal with an expected increase in arrests with an additional 1800 police officers pledged by the new Government.

Davis was reluctant to comment before Cabinet made a decision, but said: “Personally, I do not want to build another prison, I want to reduce the prison population and close prisons down, but we do have to look at all the options given the current situation.”

The open letter called for a halt on all new prison construction and “a national conversation about alternatives” with a prison population that had increased fourfold in 20 years and sent New Zealand’s rate of imprisonment well above others in the developed world.

The prison population is 10,695. The Herald has learned of extraordinary steps by Corrections to keep numbers down while expanding space available. Urgent building programmes are under way with pop-up cells, reopening in abandoned areas and double-bunking in places never previously considered.

Corrections has also focused on “soft options” such as working with remand prisoners who have literacy issues to make bail applications.

University of Canterbury criminologist Jarrod Gilbert said the Government was damned either way it went.

“The most important thing they have to do is to bring the public along with them.”