GUEST BLOG: Arthur Taylor – Xmas mail, New Serco allegations, and Peter Leitch

Xmas mail

People outside prison often find it hard to comprehend that inmates’ mail is often delayed, not just for security checks , but for officers to pass mail around and read it for personal amusement. I’ve heard discussions about inmate mail myself, but its difficult to prove wha , in any other institution, would lead to disciplinary action or even sackings for such extreme Privacy Act breaches. High profile inmates such as myself often have mail delayed, especially if we are advising another inmate on their rights . Recently an inmate received 5 delayed letters at once from me.

I’ve many times had inmates complain to me of their envelopes being swapped over to cause them embarrassment with the addressees . If they complain to inspectors, they are told they (the inmate) must have made the mistake, because there is “no evidence” of an officer doing it. Under the Corrections Ac , where inmate mail which is delayed or withheld, the inmate must be advised, but this very often doesn’t happen. As with anyone’s mail, unrelated third parties can be adversely affected if an inmates mail is delayed or censored . Some Corrections officers don’t seem to care about prompt mail delivery . We need transparent systems and real accountability to make them care .

New Serco allegations

Remember this name , Jeremy David Lightfoot, appointed by Ray Smith as National Commissioner of Corrections and bought here from the U.K….His only qualification(from the University of Sussex) appears to be in engineer projects. What he was responsible for was developing leisure facilities in the U.K. and Business management. Commenced his career in London working for local authorities in project management and from there moved into private sector roles developing social infrastructure projects ,P.P.s P.F.I. transactions . He has NO background whatsoever in working in or managing Prisons.

Since he became National Commissioner he has presided over one disaster after another and has been protecting his “baby” SERCO e.g. refusing to release any of the reports on the performance of the Wiri SERCO Prison , and covering up the reports he was receiving about the fight clubs at Mt. Eden .

Even Judith Collins criticised him for failing to release the Wiri performance reports . He has good reason to suppress these as I am reliably informed that the I.D.U. rate (positive drug test results) at SERCO Wiri is at least 25%….i.e. one quarter of the prisoners have tested positive for drug use.

Units are being locked down for 22 hrs a day because of the serious violence fighting and gang influence in them which SERCO can’t seem to control any other way.

We’re now receiving prisoners back here from SERCO who are rapt to be out of SERCO. We’re seeing them in the numbers we had  in the Mt. Eden fight club hey day. The only thing SERCO Wiri is getting good marks for is in the quality and quantity of the food they get there .

Did Corrections Dept National Commissioner Jeremy Lightfoot leave his UK employment under a cloud ? 300,000 pound loss for the division he managed for the year ended only 2 months before his departure. Hmmm? The 2 previous years had also been poor , with operating profits of 300,000 pounds (2007) and 80,000 pounds (2008) . However, the year AFTER Mr Lightfoot’s departure , profit was 1,000,000 pounds . Here’s an excerpt from the Annual Report .

“Revenues for 2009 were 1.3 million, a reduction of 38% over the previous year. The division reported an operating loss of 0.3 million. Net cash proceeds of 4.2 million from the sale of subordinated debt and equity were received in December The disappointing operational performance was largely owing to the delay in achieving financial close on an outstanding leisure PFI contract with Bristol City Council.

Management and Staff The Managing Director of PCS, Jeremy Lightfoot left the company on 26 February 2010 having decided to relocate to New Zealand. A new executive management team of experienced staff will lead the company through the early months of 2010 while a decision is made as to whether or not to recruit a new Managing Director”

Jeremy Lightfoot led Parkwood Consultancy Services (PCS)in the UK ; part of the listed company Parkwood Holdings Plc .

PCS project managed the building & later maintenance of leisure centres , schools and other public facilities under Public Private ventures with the like of local Councils.

He helped build dog kennels, not prisons.

On arrival in New Zealand in 2010 , he joined Corrections to project manage the Public Private venture with Serco . Unfortunately , he seems to have strayed from his core competency in building management to the management of individual prisoners.

Prisons are not dog kennels.

How has this been allowed to happen ?

And finally, I’ve always thought of Sir Peter as very tolerant . When his stores first started , he sent bones to the prison for the bone carvers here . He also employed ex inmates . A storm in a teacup ?

Arthur Taylor is TDBs Prisoner Rights blogger and is currently serving inside an Auckland Prison.