So the failed Private Prison experiment has killed one person

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Kelvin Davis is finally making some headway on the failed Private Prison experiment (although his performance on Paul Henry was a bit flat footed). Davis asked hard questions and as TDB suggested last week – the allegations are worse than just fight clubs.

It’s caused the death of a Prisoner

MP Kelvin Davis initiated a snap debate in Parliament this afternoon following the recent release of videos showing inmates, likely to be from the privately-run Mt Eden remand prison.

He said there were allegations seriously injured prisoners had been transported to other prisons around the country including Ngawha in Northland so the injuries wouldn’t be recorded in Serco’s statistics.

Mr Davis named a man, who he called ‘Prisoner Evans’, who had received a ruptured lung during a practice called “dropping”.

“I’m told on good authority there is a practice in Mt Eden Corrections Facility called dropping where prisoners, new prisoners usually, who walk into Mt Eden Corrections Facility are sized up by gangs, they’re bashed up and dropped off the balconies on the concrete below for good measure. That’s what happened to prisoner Evans,” Mr Davis said.

He claimed the prisoner had been transferred to Ngawha where he was “almost immediately” transferred to Whangarei Hospital where he subsequently died.

…the review  Corrections Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga is a joke because there have already been 2 reviews that haven’t been made public. This one has been co-ordinated to review only the last 3 months so Serco had a chance to clean up its act after the pref ious two reviews found serious issues. They have been investigating this for 18 months so the Minister’s claim he knew nothing is either a falsehood or the words of a Minister who is totally out of his depth.

Evidence to the latter could be seen in his hamfisted and ridiculous defence against the allegations Davis made in the house yesterday. A clearly rattled Minister claimed Davis was using the death to make ‘political gain’.

Really?

Minister, seeing as YOUR Government has adopted this right wing experiment in Private Prisons, the only one making any political gain from the death of a prisoner at the hands of Serco, is in fact YOU.

Here’s what happens. Prisoners get beaten up in Serco, Management then arrange to have that prisoner shipped off to a public prison and the public prison cleans up the mess. This means there isn’t a blot against Serco’s record and the problem gets swept away under the carpet. Serco are trying to claim that Nick Evans gained his ruptured lung from the Mt Eden Correctional Facility to the public prison while in transit. How one manages to rupture a lung on a van trip is a bit of a mystery.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

The Police to investigate and the culture of violence created by only having 2 staff per 50 prisoners at Serco needs urgent attention.

You judge a Society on how it treats its lowest, our prisoners dying in fight clubs inside prisons reflects as poorly upon us as a nation as 250 000 kids in poverty.

 

12 COMMENTS

  1. Privatisation often relies on the state picking up the pieces. We see this in hospitals in NZ where private hospitals and surgeons look to make large profits and incomes from regular elective surguries. When things go bad the public hospital is the only place to try to fix up the mess but the private businesses still charge their fees. The same with research and education in health; the costs are carried by the state but the profits go to the private sector.

    Serco is and was about profits, not delivering good social outcomes. It appears to have failed as prison managers in many places and also run various security operations that seem to be simple mercenaries.

  2. Did Serco know about this practice? If so was it something they endorsed? If they didn’t know should they have?

    I don’t see this a left – right wing issue nor about privatisation. I see it as about a company, who on the surface at the very least, appears to have been grossly negligent and attempted a coverup.

    “You judge a Society on how it treats its lowest, our prisoners dying in fight clubs inside prisons reflects as poorly upon us as a nation as 250 000 kids in poverty.”

    Absolutely which is why this needs to be investigated and if it’s found that Serco acted negligently and attempted a cover up (as to me it appears they have based on what’s been said here) then at the very least Serco should lose the prison contract and charges should be laid.

  3. In the information age we live in, it is absurd that we have embarked on this experiment when there is so much data available from overseas that clearly showed it was never going to work…

  4. This is shocking!

    The prisoner’s death was kept quiet, under wraps! Obviously wasn’t meant to be out in the public arena. Swept under the carpet, along with other major NatzKEY stuff ups, which Serco is proving itself to be. Just another one to add to the list!

    Didn’t know anything about it, until I heard Kelvin Davis bring the issue up in Parliament yesterday! Only to be expected, after the appalling information released last week, considering how Serco is badly mismanaging prisons!

  5. Words fail me. Well Bomber, you called that privatising prisons would be a disaster, and here we are. Really The John Key should be fronting up to a tribunal facing charges of crimes against humanity over this.

  6. This is more evidence of the fallacy of the “savings” to be made from contracting out of services.

    Any “savings” made always have a hidden cost, and thus are Claytons savings. In this case, the “savings” are made through low staffing levels, and part ofthe cost is injuries and high risk to prisoners and staff, and, in some cases, death, ie. murder.

    • Yes this was predictable as martyn correctly predicted.

      Simply any privatisation is simply always a rort and relies on public picking up the increasing costs.

      If we look at Private road freight transport Industry we see the same there.

      Lots of killings of private road users by monster trucks at each death costing 3.2 million per death and all the injuries sustained by roads gridlocked by trucks costing us health care and lost work time.

      Add this to the cost of private road users who pay the greatest cost of maintenance of the roads trucks use and wear down rapidly and poor private users are paying 66% while trucks pay only 53% of their wear of the roads.

      Same applied to Electricity, private rental housing, health and school privatisation will reap the same results. We the taxpayer will pickup privatisation inefficiencies. This equals a rort.

      • I could make the same criticisms about socialised services. And in the case of privatisation taxpayers only pick up the tab if the government decides a bailout is needed, which should only be under exceptional circumstances.

        I’m not an ideological purist though and with things like infrastructure (e.g. roads) there’s a pretty strong case for socialisation.

      • Indeed. I first learned about the fallacy of the supposed savings from “outsourcing” when I was working in the IT department of Wellington Hospital, and, in 1996, they outsourced their IT services to a huge multinational.

        It was a total and compete DISASTER, so bad that the contract was terminated early, and the whole thing was hushed up and never made the media. It was terminated for “non performance”, and there were MANY reasons for the non-performance, very much like the Serco fiasco actually, but different circumstances.

        One thing I especially remember was how much the big contractor company used to go on about their “global experience” and how they could “leverage” off their experience elsewhere. That was total RUBBISH: in practice it just does not work like that, because the actual PEOPLE who have that precise experience are busy working somewhere like Texas or New York, and there is no practical way to draw on their experience. And, even if it was possible, the local conditions are always a lot different, as I am sure Serco and finding to their cost! Mt Eden is NOT Sydney or the UK!!! Nothing beats in-depth local knowledge, as the managers at Wellignton Hospital discovered.

        The other thing I recall was the endless meetings! Many of the staff used to spend more time sitting in silly meetings than doing their job, and often the complexities of corporate policy got in the way of getting the job done efficiently. I did my best to ignore the big company, even though technically they were my employer, and that pissed them off at me, but I did not give a damn about that!

  7. Haven’t seen much from our quality MSM on this. I suppose they have more important things to think about – like Max Key’s holiday or Prince George’s birthday.

  8. SERCO Group PLC appears to be in financial difficulties. The site serco.com/investors states: “Asking shareholders for financial support and lenders to adjust terms on their facilities is not a position any management would want to be in. But we are determined to repay the confidence and support shown to us to the benefit of all.”

    It would appear John Key awarded a contract using taxpayer (you and me) money to help out a mate. Rupert Soames. Legal?

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