No one is surprised we have a prison riot are they?

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Come on, no one can seriously be surprised that there’s a prison riot can they?

Waikeria uprising: Prisoners still rioting at Waikato jail

Waikeria Prison remains in lockdown today as a tense 20-hour stand-off between prisoners and guards continues – fires are still burning at the jail, and projectiles have been thrown at guards.

Sixteen Waikeria prisoners are still refusing to surrender today. Four had given up overnight, but the jail has been significantly damaged and is unlikely to be used to house prisoners again.

The drama started yesterday in the prison’s exercise yard around 2pm, and then moved to the roof, where inmates set fire to mattresses.

A source told the Herald that the uprising began after inmates had been denied haircuts, but Corrections could not confirm that until they had talked to the “affected prisoners”.

Of course there was going to be a prison riot.

Welcome to your double bunked over crowded and violent prison nation, where people leave prison more damaged than they went in!

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

The gloriously counter-productive fruit from allowing spite & anger to infect social policy is a wondrous thing but the true horror of our State sanctioned double bunked rape pens has never been laid so bone bare than this piercing 2018 exclusive by the brilliant David Fisher

A serial sex offender was given the opportunity to commit violent rapes on fellow inmates after the Corrections Department deleted a warning saying he was not to be double-bunked.

Two of the three men who told police they were raped by William Katipa, 52, have been paid compensation by Corrections.

There is yet to be a settlement with the third person.

…when you allow Sensible Sentencing Trust hate or punitive #MeToo lynch mobs to decide punishment minus mercy, you get a justice system that is no longer social policy, it’s weaponised incarceration where the welfare of prisoners is the lowest of concerns…

The actual number of victims may be much higher, with documents showing Katipa shared a cell with as many as 50 other people before the rapes emerged.

For the prison rapes, Katipa was sentenced this year on five counts of sexual violation, four of indecent assault, three of threatening to kill, a charge of attempted sexual violation and a charge of assault with intent to injure.

…the decision to only allow rehabilitation to prisoners who admit their guilt has created a counter productive nightmare where prisoners serve their full sentence locked up 20 hours a day for years and years until they explode on release…

Convicted murderer Scott Watson denied parole for third time

Convicted murderer Scott Watson says he is not as arrogant as he used to be, but the Parole Board has ruled his failure to complete treatment means he’ll stay behind bars.

…and the brutally punitive manner in which Corrections restore order…

Pepper spray used against inmates nearly 900 times last year

The numbers of assaults reported in prisons has also been increasing.

In the 2016 financial year, there were just six recorded uses of pepper spray.

Last year, guards displayed their cans of the inflammatory agent – and prepared to incapacitate an inmate – nearly 900 times.

…on top of the last BIM report that warns of extremism inside prisons because of the lack of rehabilitation…

Briefings to ministers: Government releases advice to new ministers

Corrections has alerted Minister Kelvin Davis to a rise in signs of extremism amongst offenders.

The department has provided a briefing as Davis heads into his second term in the role.

It says there’s been an increase in the number of people it manages, who potentially hold extremist views – or display risk factors specific to radicalisation or violent extremism.

It’s established a Prisoners of Extreme Risk Directorate and made violent extremism a priority for Corrections Intelligence.

Corrections says it recognises that extra measures are needed to safely manage those who present an ongoing risk of harm – and the potential to influence others to engage in serious violence.

The department says of the nine thousand people in prison, 91 per cent have been diagnosed with substance abuse or a mental health disorder at some point in their lives.

More than half of inmates – or 4730 – identify as Māori.

Thirty-five per cent are affiliated with a gang, and 36 per cent are on remand.

…so a violent, underfunded punitive and counter productive prison industrial complex should expect rioting.

There is a dark abscess in the heart of Kiwis who sadistically derive excitement from not only a prisoner being punished by their loss of liberty, but who love that the prisoners suffer as well.

Kiwis have a fetish to see prisoners demeaned, broken and made to suffer, in such an environment, those prisoners will fight back.

Welcome to a toxic problem of our own making everyone.

 

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39 COMMENTS

  1. it is no surprise after having Kelvin Davis as the correction minister for the last 3 years. The word useless does not do him justice. Where is all the rehabilitation he talked about when they came to power. He must have been too busy writing poetry

    • No Trevor, the question is, “ Where is the money? “ for rehabilitative prison reform and the answer is, “ There is no money, “ and one can’t blame Davis for that, he’s not the person running the govt, nor the one – or two – on the phone advising the PM what to do.

      Apart from the evil of double bunking, the NZ prison model is barbaric, and it is govt after govt who have chosen to further damage already damaged persons, most of whom were damaged by being in government care in the first place – a circular sort of legal crime.

      • Well frankly Davis should have gone harder into bat for the money, don’t let them say no to you. The system is screwed, we know the way to do this right, we only have to look at the Nordic countries. LETS DO THIS!

        And what was the outcome for the two women who were repeatedly pepper sprayed and have to show their used sanitary pads to the guards??

      • You are one day going to have to stop the 9 years of neglect line, and admit that there are many labour ministers who are beyond useless. Davis, Twyford, Little just to start

        • Agree you can add Mallard to that list as one of the worst speakers for some time. It is interesting at the height of covid the health minister hide in Dunedin and now the correction minister is nowhere to be seen during the worst situation in years

    • No, you’re wrong. No minister can change the Department of Corrections. It’s culture is 100 percent broken. It is beyond control. It’s reason for being is to warehouse prisoners, end of conversation. It’s the one constant Corrections manages.

      It must be consigned to the dustbin of history.

  2. I was refused a haircut at boarding school, along with others… we didn’t lose our shit and burn the place down, we just cut out own hair. These idiots need to grow up or stay in solitary confinement until do.

    • Ever been in there Karu, know what its like do you, know how the screws treat people, know what the screws get away with, know about the abuse……

      • Know what it’s like to be victim of crime do you Michal?
        Know how some scum destroy families, know what criminals get away with, know about the abuse, that people suffer from criminals.
        Here’s a fucking novel idea, dont break the law.
        I guess everyone in prison is innocent, or misunderstood.

        • I cannot believe that you can ignore the fact people are the way they are due to their formative years . Just saying do not break the law is a cope out . If those responsible for bring up,a child are brain dead through booze or drugs who is going to show them what is right or wrong. One of my son’s school mates told him just before his birthday his dad took him out and asked him to point out the bike he want him to steal for his present.
          Many of these prisoners cannot read or write . They are locked away for years and come out no better equipped to succeed. Why?

          • The rate of undiagnosed glue ear leading to partial deafness leading to the inability to read and write is well documented Trevor. It is abnormally high amongst the incarcerated.The evidence has been available for over 40 years apart from the efforts of the Variety Club with their glue ear caravans to traveling remote areas and more grommet operations being done nothing is available to counteract the poor literacy rates. There is no funding for literacy programs in our prisons I know because I have a program I want to take into prisons no one wants to know.Especially if you’re an old pakeha woman like me.

          • And a very high proportion have addiction issues and need serious mental health help.

            Come on follow the Nordic countries, LETS DO THIS!

        • Spot on. Just bloody behave yourself and no problems. In this country the perpetrators get the sympathy, not the victims. My husband worked in a prison for a while and the inmates got a better Christmas dinner than anything we could afford.

          • You do talk a lot of ignorant worthless vindictive crap Gaby. If you couldn’t afford a Christmas feed on a screws wage you must be really shit cook!

          • You do talk a lot of ignorant worthless vindictive crap Gaby. If you couldn’t afford a Christmas feed on a screws wage you must be really shit cook!

          • Gaby of the pro Zionist lobby group.

            You poor thing not being able to afford a roast and apple pie. I could send a food parcel perhaps, please advise your address. You could have probably gone to one of the missions to get your Christmas dinner.

            It costs on average $6.03 to feed a prisoner each day. $2194 a year.

            According to the stats the absolute minimum to feed an adult on is $5.21 a day, wow they must be getting lots of trimmings.

        • I know how the lies of the police and Crown Law make families victims in victimless crimes blown out of all proportion to save the scum bag careers of those buffoons who work in Crown Law and the police force. They must NEVER be seen for the incompetent vindictive profligate fools they are!And they get to destroy young people’s lives on a daily basis. There is no such thing as restorative justice only State abuse .We live in a Kafkaesque society.

        • Oh and the law is an ass in this country and we are an extremely backward and punitive country.Our laws are so outdated . Our laws on electronic evidence are so loose you can get away with any lie there are no checks and balances. Unlawful searches are allowed outright lies are entered as evidence and the public believes our police do not do these things. This country is so fucked I find it increasingly difficult to care about my fellow New Zealanders.

        • For a start Pedro, NZ routinely imprisons people for crimes that seldom if ever attract prison sentences in other jurisdictions. In many cases, as has already been explained by others, a significant proportion of the musters are there because of state abuse. – those poor buggers never had a chance. The ‘lock-’em up and throw away the key brigade’ only exacerbate the problem. They would rather have prisoners kicked about instead of provided with even basic rehabilitation programmes.
          You probably don’t realise that you piss people off when you assume to carry the flag for victims. It is your attitude that creates victims! Having worked on both sides of the system, both corrections and victim services along with some background in restorative justice, you can be assured that most people are neither knuckle-dragging crims nor pathetically hard-done by damaged victims. It only seems that way because our justice and corrective services have been constantly eroded. Community and humanity have been alienated by the likes of Sensible Sentencing, flag waving arseholes who if their power trips are analysed, are little different from the crims they rail against and prosecution systems that have conviction rather than resolution as the wellspring of their existence. One of the indicators of how political the whole system has become is the alacrity with which minimum sentences and three sticks law were accepted.
          Finally, let he who is without sin …..

        • Know what it’s like to be victim of crime do you Michal?
          YES I DO MORE THAN ONCE.
          Know what the police get away with, know what the screws get away with. No not innocent but our society and attitudes have an awful lot to answer for. Perhaps 200 people belong in prison (repeat murderers, rapists, paedophiles), the rest of them should be out cleaning up our rivers and doing that sort of time.

          Presumably in your life you have never broken the law, nor made a mistake.

  3. Another post about a Govt dept where Labour were hammering National about its ‘failures’ for almost all of 2017 and you mention little about Kelvin Davis who was front and centre at 6pm news and front pages of the daily papers saying how it will all be different under Labour (not unlike Arden who was taking ‘personal’ resposibility for child poverty and its increased under her watch!)

    Im looking forward to Kelvins comments, which he has refused to give till riots over (awaiting a PR script no doubt) and wonder how many times he blames National!?

      • Thank you Donald, it’s all the lefts fault!

        It’s ok to pull a waitresses hair though, if you’re a right wing leader.

        • The serial hair pulling was a rich v poor issue, as are other issues said to be L v R, or racist – the big divides globally are rich v poor, but it’s easier to demonise with race issues.

          Kelvin Davis was opposed to double bunking in that prison, but the deal was signed off by Judith Collins.

          • And you mean Davis couldn’t then do anything about it! Come on either the man is in charge or he isn’t but still pulling the big salary.

            • Michael – It’s all online, but where contracts have been signed, they can’t just be dumped, and from memory, Judith Collins wanted one of those horrendous great mega prisons which the USA has ; Davis successfully opposed that, and I think he prioritised a purpose -built, long overdue, mental health facility – his focus appeared to be on keeping folk out of prison altogether, whereas Collins seemed to have more of a build build sort of mentality.

              The practice of double bunking in a one man space is so very bad that the whole government should be held to account for it, and ideally, by an international body, and it probably shouldn’t just be dumped on Davis.

              Sartre’s, ‘ Hui Clos ‘ which I first saw long ago at Canterbury Univ, gave rise to the frequently misplaced, “Hell is other people,” quote, featuring three people destined to spend eternity together, in hell. Two persons forced to spend 23 hours daily locked up together in a small space is sadistic, a clear mental health challenge for many, and as such, is indefensible.

        • While I look at most situations through different eyes I can usually see your point of view but I feel you have let yourself down with this comment as the situation is serious for all involved on both side . As my teacher often said “could do better “

  4. In the mid 1960’s when the Beatles come out, I wouldn’t get a haircut. My old man told me to go and get short back and sides from his Barber. I went to Barber and got a “Beatle cut” (trim). I got home and got the bash.
    Lucky my old man isn’t the Inmates RSM or they’d be given the bash too.

  5. Probably not, but these scumbag prisoners are hardened criminals who can do their lag and should be flogged for good measure

    • Scumbag commenters who haven’t a clue about the real world that leads people into crime should have their fingers broken. How would you cope with being locked up in a double-bunked cell for 25 hours a day arsehole?

  6. Corrections officers drew pepper spray last year 900 more times than 2016, because they weren’t issued individual pepper spray like the police until 2018. You only need to look at the violence in society and what is being displayed by the inmates rioting to see what a violent place prison is. By the time many get to prison they are entrenched in violence. Society has done this, not corrections. I’m tired of keyboard warriors acting on half truths supporting criminal behaviour and worse than that enabling it with ill thought out posts like this. The real issues are what leads people to prison and the unjust society NZ has created

  7. I believe the management knew all about this , as I did well before this happened but they did nothing about it.
    They need to answer a lot of questions.
    Instead of blaming everyone else.
    Sad for the staff to have to be in that position.

  8. I’m not so sure Kelvie is going to be able to NOT put ekshully doing something down to it being an “operational matter” – in this space, going forward
    I also suspect that there are a lot of people (such as Sue Bradford) and Don McKinnon would acknowledge tht things have ekshully got worse rather than better.
    At least in the past (whether by way of various rehabilitation programmes – Pillars, Anna Tia/Auckland Community Centre, Prisoners’ art and things like debating teams [ sponsored by the likes of a Don McKinnon btw] ) there was ekshull progress and rehab, AND those
    ekshully worked in that space, going forward.

    And for the likes of some of the above commenters, I’d really like to see you drink brown contaminated water and not be able to wipe your fucking pompous arse for a month without screaming for your mummy.
    So you keep doing your cost/benefit and SWOT analyses for whatever you have in mind, and see where that gets you.

    Anyone know though in this neo-liberal bugger’s muddle when matters operational get to the point that ‘we really should DO something’
    I reckon (or should I say, My reckons are) it’s when a functional media taunt to the point of embarrassment.

    • Who gives a damn as to the names or offences the prison activists were convicted of? The issue is that their actions are exposing the abuse of persons who are incarcerated, and who are as entitled as anyone else to having their basic human rights respected. This includes the inalienable right to food and drinking water that are basic to survival but denied to them by the State. When you, like those who are making a stand for humane justice and correction services have to drink your own urine to survive, you may begin to understand how badly NZ is failing in its social metrics. That would be far more productive than making stupid demands for the release of irrelevant information that reek of prejudice and ignorance.

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