If you were to listen to the tripe trotted out by corrections spin doctors (which cost you tens of millions) you could be forgiven to thinking all was rosy behind prison walls. The only hiccups are the admission the much touted 25% reoffending rate dropped and by 2017 has no hope in hell in being achieved (it never did and it never will so long as Corrections have control on rehabilitation).
The increasing violence in the prisons, caused mostly by the smoking ban which left prisoners with nothing to relieve the monotony, boredom, stress and anxiety of daily prison life has also seen a jump in the number of prison suicides. Interestingly enough, when was the last time you heard one reported in the mainstream media? We’ve had 5 in the last 12 months in this prison alone that I’ve never seen reported.
It’s no good for Judith Collins to say we have suicides in the community as well. There’s no comparison, the number in prisons is far in excessive than in the community. Take into account a prisoner is being closely watched and taken care of by Corrections who have a legal responsibility to at least release them at the end of their sentence ALIVE. Perhaps allowing more prisoners to suicide as part of the agenda to cut reoffending?
Before Mike Bush claims credit for that, the crime rate in all countries similar to our own has been dropping for years. It’s all about demographics the number of people in the age range that commit almost all crimes have dropped so there’s been a commensurate drop in the number of crimes committed.
Anyone interested in seeing detail on how Corrections “cooks the books” will do well to read Rodger Brookings excellent post “Corrections Cuts Crime With The Selective Use of Statistics” Brooking blog, 3 August 2014.
It’s only going to get worse; where else does the number of prisoners’ skyrocket following a significant DROP in the crime rate.
Arthur Taylor is a prisoner rights activist who is currently in prison and blogs for TDB.
Ever bothered to look at staff deaths, staff injuries, staff suicide or staff attempted suicide – thought not.
To be fair much of the trauma to staff comes from management and head office, but many staff go to work scared every day, of course they are not suited to the work but when you have a family to support you do what you have to do.
Can you imagine what it is like going through those gates every day knowing you can’t find a more suitable job and having to get through the shift with no support.
Offenders have people in their corner, ombudsman, inspectorate, left wing bloggers, do good visitors, religeous groups etc…etc…. honest decent staff have no-one, they are thrown in the trash.
If you genuinely want better prisons start supporting decent staff (some of you superior types could apply) keep abusng good staff and they will continue to be hounded out to be replaced by cowardly, semi-literate bullies.
If Bomber and his followers consider themselves to good to be prison officers then you will get the staff you deserve.
As for Arthur, seriously, criminals like him do their part in destroying staff who have tried to help them. He makes even the most saintly staff member want to cut their own throat, you dreamers have no idea.
Keyboards warriors, try working in a unit of 48 Arthur’s on your own and see how brave and clever you are. Can you imagine how stressful it is working with Arthurs….you never know when his friends will come for you, or how he will set you up with the inspector or head office.
I would rather deal with the openly violent criminal than smarty pant back stabbers like the Arthurs, he practices abuse by stealth because he is a coward and he has people like you for his enablers.
I know this won’t be published, but open your eyes Arthur is making fools of you – and you don’t need any help with that.
If you, love Arthurs so much make yourself available to sponsor them for weekend leave, and offer your home for him to go to when they let him out on parole.
The parole board take a lot of account where people are going to live when considering letting them out, good people like you could help a lot of people get released.
Contact PARS, they will advise you, but let me warn you, one of the do-gooders (nice but dim) took one of his boys home for the weekend, the crim, who he had supported and helped for years, beat and robbed him and, even worse, badly kicked his beloved dog.
So let’s see the blog of how your prison visiting goes and how it works out when you take one home. Prisons are full of people with no-one, they need real people to offer real help not blogs.
Talks cheap ……. how about some action.
Talks cheap …..blogs cheap ……
Tl;dr. The corrections recruiting pitch could do with a bit more work in my opinion. The recruiting pitch should include a lot of your points raised in your mini blog.
Honestly all that stuff should be brought up with a union rep because most of us here have no idea of the politics involved, as you said, corrections staff are just people lucky to have a job, these people shouldn’t jeopardise there job by blowing the whistle, and blowing the whistle is what they would be doing. Especially when you want to publish on TDB. Because legal problems.
Prisoners on the other hand as the above article points out, don’t have a voice in the system, so threats of litigation isn’t something you would worry about to much.
If you where a corrections officer. I would say to you are very lucky the GCSB (in my guesstimation) is still some months behind in getting the NSA tech that trolls social media looking for key phrases. The U.S uses it all the time for anything including firing employees. One of my favourit you tubers Jesse from prank vs prank, him and two of his buddies organised to run on the pitch during super bowl, one of them broke coms and twitted 2 months earlier that they where going to prank the Super Bowl the other month. The cops where all over them as sone as they sat down, they now have a life time ban from all Super Bowl events. So an extra warning to any potential whistle blower. Do it properly and contact a union rep.
The tech is real, it’s just a matter of time before its rolled out in NZ,link to failed super bowl prank: http://youtu.be/8AbwqbnUgzk
“Prisoners on the other hand as the above article points out, don’t have a voice in the system, so threats of litigation isn’t something you would worry about to much”
What on earth are you talking about?
Do you know how many times Arthur has sued corrections?
Do you know that they had to set him up his own private office so he could conduct his ‘legal affairs’?
Do you know he was still earning 110k while still inside prison and demanding legal aid?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10659514
It’s not defamatory, it’s all on the public record.
I can empathize that your job is difficult, particularly due to privatization and staff cutbacks, however, at the end of your shift, staff, you get to go home. The prisoners do not. They are forced to be there, against their will, 24/7, you are not, at least you get to walk through those gates out again!
In your post you have resorted to allot of name calling which comes across as a childish tantrum. Arthur articulates himself well, from his point of view, you do not. As your post is non-specific about what your issue is with him, I can only guess that you don’t like prisoners that stick up for themselves. You are charged with the care and protection of human beings and from what you have said, if you are what is considered good staff, better than average, no wonder there is so many problems. You are in the wrong job, like a school teacher that dislikes children.
People don’t generally invite people to stay in their home unless they know them well, such as family and friends, that is normal and makes your argument absurd. Would I invite an ex-prisoner I didn’t know into my home to stay? No, but I wouldn’t invite you either, staff, for the same reason.
Staff get plenty of support from the department generally , from their union ( President Bevin Hanlon ) and from the Inspectorate . According to Corrections Annual Report to Parliament , only about 2% of prisoner complaints are upheld by the inspectorate , so they can hardly be said to be on prisoners’ side , as “Staff” claims . Rather , they support officers . I have never known an officer to be sacked for mistreating a prisoner . The Jai Davis coroners enquiry at Otago CF is a case in point . Staff negligence and even callousness was identified , but no one was held accountable .
My TV3 interview brought to the public’s attention many of the Departments’ failings , so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to be called names like “coward” , but its defamatory and completely untrue to say “you never know when his (Arthur’s) friends will come for you”.
I would say someone making such an accusation while hiding behind a pen name is more likely to be the coward.
Let’s look at reality . I’m a Low/Medium security prisoner forced to endure Maximum Security conditions . I get on well with most officers and had many congratulations after my TV3 interview . There hasn’t been a violent incident on my landing for 4 months due to my diplomatic skills with fellow inmates . I work on the belief that inmates are human beings and respond well when treated with respect .
Sorry I forgot about the smoking, you might be stupid enough to smoke but I am entitled to a smoke free work place.
Mind if I smoke – mind if I die.
I hope one of your fancy-pants lawyers takes some time off from supporting criminals to take action of behalf of staff who have lung disease contracted at work.
Welfare of staff, consider that.
It’s pretty hard to find sympathy about the onerous conditions when one of the countries worst criminals who helped Graham Burton escape is an active blogger from inside.
Yeah nah.
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