Advocates speak out against ‘dangerous’ privatisation of NZ prisons

Critics of prison privatisation have spoken out about the potential dangers of the system at meetings in Auckland over the last two weeks.

Criticism of the private prison company Serco has been overwhelming in the last few months, following the discovery of organised ‘fight clubs’ and allegations of prisoner mistreatment in Mt Eden prison earlier this year.

Despite the government taking back control of the prison at the end of July due to the allegations, the critics have not been silenced and want to ensure the issue is looked at more closely.

Labour Party MP and corrections spokesperson, Kelvin Davis, was part of a panel discussion about the issue held at the University of Auckland on 30 September.

“The reason we’ve had so many issues at Mt Eden is because they’ve cut corners and that’s when staff and prisoners become endangered,” said Mr Davis.

“The stories you’ve heard [are] only scratching the surface of what’s going on there.”

Kelvin Davis explains what he believes is wrong with the way Serco runs Mt Eden prison by comparing it to an episode of TV show Criminal Minds.

The participants in the panel discussion accused Serco of cutting corners by deliberately understaffing the prison to make money.

The National Treasurer for the Corrections Association of New Zealand, Morrin Whareumu, said the public sector agreed ratio of one staff member to 15 prisoners doesn’t apply to Serco-run prisons.

“At Serco you’ll have one officer unlocking up to 60 prisoners, and then multiply that by the unit next door. That’s another 60 prisoners and only one officer, and the quickest way to lose control is not having enough staff to react to any dangerous situations,” said Mr Whareumu.

“You can clearly see what happens if you lose control of a prison. People get thrown off balconies and they don’t get the treatment and help they require,” he added, referring to a number of alleged recent incidents in Mt Eden Prison.

The UK-based chief of Serco, Rupert Soames, defended the company’s management of the prison in August. He told TV3 that the Mt Eden facility had gone from “being one of the worst-performing prisons to one of the best under Serco”, but admitted that the fight club video was “shocking”

Privatisation also faces criticism in Australia

New Zealand isn’t the only place that has opened prisons up for privatisation.

Across the ditch, Australia was one of the first countries to use private prisons. Today one out of every six prisoners there is incarcerated in a private facility, but they have also drawn criticism.

“Privatisation is not the solution,” said Chris Cunneen, a Professor of Criminology at the University of New South Wales in a public lecture titled ‘The Problem of Mass Incarceration’ at AUT University on 7 October.

“If you’re trying to use it to solve an expanding prison population, you have to address the reasons for the expanding prison population,” said Mr Cunneen.

“Clearly that has to be the first principle rather than simply a reliance on privatising facilities.”

Is Wiri Prison also at risk?

Concerns have also been raised about Auckland South Corrections Facility, also known as Wiri Prison, which is jointly operated by Serco and the government.

Auckland South prison has also recently had incidents of inmate-on-inmate violence. A transsexual woman was raped in the prison last week according to the organisation No Pride in Prisons.

Labour MP Kelvin Davis read an email from the wife of an Auckland South-prisoner at the panel meeting in which she expressed her husband’s concern for his own security.

“He said there’s already serious beatings happening, and he doesn’t believe they’re all being reported. […] There’s no staff on the floor so you can never find anyone and no one is ever observing what the inmates are doing,” the email said.

Mr Davis said he fears the prison is not being adeqauately managed. “If the systems in the prison aren’t up to scratch, we’ll just end up in the same situation with the same sort of beatings and carry on as what’s been going on at Mt Eden,” Mr Davis said.

The claims have not been raised with the operator of the prison, said Serco’s director of operations Scott McNairn in a statement to Radio New Zealand.

The final report of the first part of the investigation into the incidents at Mt Eden Prison is expected to be released on October 30.