The revelation that prisoners held in solitary confinement have surged 78% since Labour came to power highlights how toxic our prison culture has become.
This despite a 2017 UN report that said NZ used solitary confinement at rates four times higher than England and that Māori were more likely to face it.
The Chief Ombudsman has launched yet another report looking into the use of solitary confinement but we don’t need another report to understand that the use of solitary as a punishment actually amounts to torture.
Human Beings are social animals, depriving us of social interaction can drive humans mad, sick and depressed.
What we are doing here is using punishment techniques that damage the prisoners even more in an environment of violence and total control.
This is not only an immoral technique, it exacerbates a counterproductive prison environment where prisoners are released more damaged than when they went in!
This toxic neoliberal punishment culture desperately needs to be replaced by Tikanga values in the same way Oranga Tamariki was taken over.
Prisoners would benefit far more from values based on Māori culture than sterile Pākehā bureaucracy.
First published on Waatea News.
Why add the last line to the intro. These prisoners are all people and whatever race they are should be treated the same .
The real question is why is it worse under Labour.
So many of your commentators suggest Nats are evil and now the good guys are in power. The lack of care about the social ills we are living with now shows how many have been blinded by the fairy dust from on high.
I believe Labour and National supporters are all the same caring people that want answers to the same problems but see the path to get there differently . The problem lies with those that become our leaders and this is copied around the World by leaders that start of with good intent but then become the dictator .Few seem to be uncorrupted by power . It is up to the little people to remind those in power why they are there.
I agree Martyn, but without supporting data statistics can be misleading. Does the report give a break-down as to why solitary confinement is being used (punishment or lack of staff/facilities). To me ‘solitary’ is only justfiable for short periods for anger management – beyond that it will always be detrimental to future behaviour. Like you say “solitary as a punishment actually amounts to torture”.
I sympathize with political prisoners or those convicted of a victimless crime but the guy who bludgeons his partner to death can rot in his cell for all I care, isolated for ever if necessary. Here in Taranaki the cops tend to let prisoners drown in their own sick and piss during their stay (Stuff, 2021), our intersectional police shedding tears of self pity when their negligence is exposed but ultimately dismissed in court. In the U.S. prisons are looking at using methods from the Holocaust to isolate prisoners permanently (Washington Post, 2021).
Stuff. (2021). Taranaki police officers charged with manslaughter knew victim had suicidal thoughts, did not know he had taken prescription drugs. Retrieved from
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300313013/taranaki-police-officers-charged-with-manslaughter-knew-victim-had-suicidal-thoughts-did-not-know-he-had-taken-prescription-drugs
Washington Post. (2021). Arizona plans to execute prisoners with a lethal gas the Nazis used at Auschwitz. Retrieved from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/06/01/arizona-gas-chamber-execution/
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