‘Derogatory’ prison blog taken down
An anonymous blog publishing various ‘‘offensive and derogatory’’ posts about staff at an Auckland prison has been taken down.
The blog focused on Mt Eden Corrections Facility (MECF), a large remand prison in central Auckland, and was online for several weeks, publishing a range of salacious and unverified rumours about prison staff.
A few posts centred on concerns in the public interest, such as the case of a staffer who accidentally leaked a list of workers on ACC or gardening leave.
But a significant proportion contained allegations regarding the personal lives of workers and managers.
They included several discussions of alleged liaisons as well as allegations of debts owed by staff members to other employees.
The blog was never able to be searched on Google. Only those who had the link were able to view the page, suggesting an option on the Wordpress site not to index the page on Google had been selected.
The authors said on the blog it was hosted overseas, and posts were made from outside New Zealand.
MECF prison director Dennis Goodin said the blog was taken down on March 31.
‘‘I am aware of, and extremely disappointed by, this anonymously published blog,’’ he said.
‘‘Posts became increasingly offensive and derogatory, causing significant harm to a number of people.
‘‘While it may appear that some of the issues raised were legitimate, the information was unverified and in many cases incorrect.’’
Stuff is aware of internal discord regarding the blog, and that many Corrections staff raised concerns about it, which was confirmed by Goodin in a statement.
‘‘The large number of staff who raised concerns about the blog – both directly and via the website – demonstrated that it did not reflect the pride and professionalism of the team at MECF.
‘‘As a management team we encouraged staff not to read the blog, and to report it to Netsafe. The Corrections Association encouraged their members to do the same.’’
It is unclear whether the page was voluntarily taken down by the author or authors, or if Wordpress decided to pull the blog.