You’ve all heard about the massive over representation of Maori in prisons, but you may not know the further you go into the Belly of the Beast the higher that representation gets.
For example, in minimum security and the so-called “holiday camps” the percentage of Maori varies between 25-60%. However in the most restrictive and punishing units, it averages 60-70%.
In the most punishing unit in the prison system,D.Block (maximum security) sometimes there would be up to a year whereby I was the only pakeha..(these statistics do not include prison staff).
Arthur Taylor is TDB’s prisoner rights blogger and is currently inside prison
