Violent stories from the inside
Prison inmate Damien Grant was beaten up; officer Bruce Robertson says our jails are ‘failing miserably’. This is their story.
Law and order has been a feature of political discourse in this country since the 1990s – now it’s time to talk about the cost.
The numbers are frankly too staggering to ignore, let alone the social impact.
During the course of investigating our prison system – in the very week we’d been allowed inside Mt Eden, the first journalists since last year’s fight club scandal – the total number of inmates hit 10,000 for the first time. It was the grimmest of milestones and one reached ahead of forecast. That’s because the number of people (mostly men, mostly Maori) we lock up is relentlessly increasing.
In the last two years, Corrections has run $67 million over what was originally budgeted (out of a total budget of $2.5 billion).
Corrections Minister Judith Collins backs chief executive Ray Smith, though, and we revealed this week he has had his contract extended. He’s certainly not responsible for the growing muster (although he must take some responsibility for the failure of the aim to reduce reoffending by 25 per cent by 2017).
No, the number of people turning up to prison traces back to decisions made in the Beehive by Governments of both hues.
Even as the crime rate drops, longer sentences, reduced parole and growing numbers of people remanded in custody are fuelling a building boom in the prison system. And from 2018 on, the Ministry of Justice is expecting hundreds of more beds will be needed for offenders caught up by the ‘‘three strikes’’ legislation.
All those things trace back to political decisions.
And yet there are many people within the system determined to make a difference. People who want a system which encourages rehabilitation and reintegration.
Today, we have the views of two people with views from the inside: how things are going right, how things are going wrong, and how they could be done better.
And this week, through our documentary series we featured others too who want change. One of those was Gareth Sands, the former director of Mt Eden who lost his job over the fight club debacle but remains hopeful about the prison system. It’s why we chose to call the final episode ‘‘Another Way?’’ There has to be, for all our sakes.
Watch all six episodes of the Stuff Circuit investigation: Private Business, Public Failure – Inside our Prisons stuff.co.nz