I can’t believe that I actually need to articulate this, but torturing NZ prisoners is counter productive…
Tupe Masina spent months in a small cell by himself – Corrections admits he shouldn’t have
Masina, 41, says he spent at least 247 days in directed segregation – Corrections’ euphemism for solitary confinement – including consecutive stretches of 63 days and 76 days.
He served most of his sentence at Auckland South Corrections Facility, run by the private company Serco, but was transferred to Spring Hill Prison in Waikato eight months before his release.
Under the United Nations’ “Mandela Rules”, solitary confinement – defined as confinement for 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human contact – may only be imposed in exceptional circumstances. More than 15 consecutive days is regarded as a form of torture.
Stuff revealed last year the number of people held in segregation rose by 50 per cent between 2011 and 2020 – from 7942 to 11,961 – despite the prison population growing by only 9 per cent during that time.
…our terribly underfunded prison industrial complex is violent and corrupt, but because of the Sensible Sentencing Lynch mob and the new woke Lynch mobs, the anger criminals cause is used as a trigger to emotionally manipulate voters into screaming for harder and more corrosive punishments.
The mainstream media use crime as a ratings booster while politicians manipulate the fear and anger that is generated and we end up with a desire to not only punish prisoners, but we want them to suffer!
Most Kiwis won’t be happy until prisoners are chained together on the side of the road in orange jumpsuits breaking rocks while singing ‘Old Man River’.
15 days in solitary confinement is considered torture. We are locking people up in solitary for months!
We are sending damaged men into prison and they are coming out more damaged!
How the fuck is this a solution?
What is most egregious is that a relative of Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis can still be tortured and nothing happen!
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Obviously our rehabilitation procedures in the Justice System are deficient or not working at best ?
what do you suggest when someone will not conform and is violent martyn…..will you personally go into a cell and ‘talk’ to them….like the cops we underfund and underpay prison officers and as a consequence we don’t get the best which means subtle approaches are beyond their competence and we see the result.
EVERY normal person can be talked to and convinced to conform.
If not, then this person has a severe mental health issue (which in all likelihood is the very underlying reason for his/her imprisonment). Therefore this person needs mental health treatment, NOT imprisonment. The latter will only aggravate the situation as has been shown over and over again.
Until we face this reality, nothing will be allowed to change for the better for our prisoners.
What a naive comment! What is your definition of “Normal”? Have you ever worked or been around violent offenders? Its very easy to say that they can all be “talked to” in every situation, but it’s another thing entirely to try and actually do it. I don’t envy the prison guards who have to do this every day and probably don’t get enough funding to do it safely
yes closing mental health services in favour of the non-existant ‘care in the community’ made cops social workers and prisons ‘hospitals’ but that policy had broad support (albeit for different reasons) from both left and right.
but as I say you have violent armed person in front of YOU right now….what do YOU do.
I would withdraw/run…. whatever it takes to defuse the immediate emergency situation.