Investigation into the Transport of Prisoners
te-pati-maori
Wed Jun 13 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Investigation into the Transport of Prisoners
Wednesday, 13 June 2007, 10:21 pm
Press Release: The Maori Party
Investigation in relation to the Transport of Prisoners
Urgent Debate: Hone Harawira: Wed 13 June 2007
Introduction
Three years ago, a eleven year old indigenous boy was arrested for burglary, held in custody overnight, and then transported 500km in a police cage. The cops told his mum that they wouldn't let him sit in the empty back seat, but that he'd be comfortable lying on the floor of the "dog box".
And even though tribal leaders, elders and civil rights lawyers condemned the action, the Police Minister said the officers had followed all protocols.
This is one of the many true stories which came out of the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody, andalthough it's about our Koori relations in Australia, it could just as easily have come out of the Belgrave/Smith investigation into the transport of prisoners here in Aotearoa.
Because, just like here, the ever increasing imprisonment of indigenous people is reflected in Canada, Australia, Hawai'i, Tahiti, and other places where colonial ethics still dominate. And folks, it is not a good news story.
Ombudsman's Report
The2003 Census of Prison Inmates and Home Detainees says that 59% of female inmates and 54% of male inmates on remand, were Maori. What that means is that there's a more than even chance that prisoners in transit will be Maori as well.
So when the Ombudsman talks about inhumane treatment of prisoners in transit, it's overwhelmingly Maori who he's talking about, and I quote from the concluding comments of his report which notes that:
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"Needs are not being met. There is a lack of national standards for food, water and rest breaks. Some practices fall significantly short of meeting what we would consider reasonable standards".
Prisoners urinating in the vans, and not being fed because the escorts can't be bothered stopping, prisoners being moved in the evening because there aren't enough beds in prison; the reality is way scarier than the report lets on.
And not only are basic needs being denied, the report also says that:
"hard wood or metal benches for journeys of many hours in small cages without proper window does not constitute a humane standard of transport".
Standards
We don't expect inmates to get the celebrity treatment that Paris Hilton is getting, but we do expect that their basic human rights will be met, and we do expect Corrections to ensure that custodial sentences"are administered in a safe, secure, humane and effective manner" in line with their legislation.
That was the standard in Section C.01 of the Policy and Procedures Manual, breached when Liam Ashley was killed in the back of a prison van, and no doubt breached on countless other occasions all round the country before and since.
A clear case again of corporate manslaughter going unpunished because we don't have a law to deal with such poor behaviour from departmental officials.
Another section of the same Manual says that prisoners on escort shall not be placed in"unnecessary discomfort", and yet prisoners are transferred in small, closed-in cages, with poor light, bad ventilation, wooden seats and metal floors.
When a person goes to jail, they shouldn't have to forfeit their human rights, nor suffer the inhumanity of others, nor be subjected to a life of perpetual and unrelenting cruelty, and yet clearly government has allowed that to happen during a time highlighted by this country's continual dishonouring of international laws and conventions on human rights.
In fact, this government's failure to protect teenage prisoners from violent adult offenders was criticised in 2004, by none other than the United Nations Committee against Torture for heavens sake, who recommended government take immediate steps to make the necessary changes.
Ignoring this recommendation cost the Ashley family dearly, and makes current prattle about changing procedures and protocols, weak and pathetic.
Human Rights
Resolving the crisis is not about chaining up prisoners; it's about government taking immediate action to address ongoing breaches of people's human rights, particularly the rights of the most vulnerable.
We don't want to see any repeats of the Goon Squad in Canterbury; or the serious assaults at Mangaroa in the Hawkes Bay; or the corruption at Rimutaka; and nor do we want more lives lost because neither Corrections nor the government are willing to accept their international human rights responsibilities.
Jail is a sentence designed to punish a person by depriving them of their liberty, but it should not expose inmates to behaviour that would be treated as criminal, if it was carried on outside prison gates.
And that's where the Maori Party is most concerned about the tone of this report.
Our society is struggling to deal with the way in which vulnerable people in our communities,'low income consumers', battle to cope with the poverty that denies them access to even the most basic of human rights.
And the last couple of weeks has been a classic case of the nation erupting in outrage when agents of the state dealt with a family's heartache and pain with cold and brutal heartlessness, and an immediate refusal to accept any responsibility.
And yet here we have another tragedy; another life lost; and again, a refusal by the Agency to say sorry.
Operational Issues
The Ombudsman's report stated, and I quote:
"Throughout this investigation we were saddened to find a theme of lack of communication between national office and frontline staff which resulted in numerous different practices developing at the front line".
That was almost word-for-word the same comments from the 2005 report, which described the conflict between national office and frontline staff as"a major concern", a"gulf", and a"major ground for criticism of central management".
And yet, despite the repeated evidence, the Chief Executive still says"I do not agree" and justifies his views by saying that his department is a very large organisation, with a lot of staff.
Hello!!! Isn't that all themore reason for sorting out communication problems?
Former inmates, current inmates; prison support workers, Corrections staff, criminologists, audit officers, and now even the Ombudsman, all talk about dis-satisfaction and low morale between national and regional staff – andstill the boss refuses to see what is right there under his nose.
Conclusion
During his imprisonment by South Africa's apartheid government, Nelson Mandela kept long and detailed journals describing the inhumanities imposed by prison staff in the name of justice, and in one such letter, he wrote:
''there are times when my heart almost stops beating, slowed down by heavy loads of longing for freedom".
We in this House have the power to make sure the system never again allows a heart to stop beating, through departmental incompetence and government complicity in the denial of human rights, and I urge us all strength in the pursuit of that goal.
ENDS
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