The punishment of incarceration is the loss of liberty, not physical violence

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
21
908

Disgraced realtor attacked in jail for ‘narking on inmate’, facial injuries ‘permanent’

It has now emerged that Drever was attacked earlier this month at Ngawha Prison in Northland, with claims another inmate struck Drever in the face with a metal grille hook, slashing his face and exposing his nasal cavity, in the prison kitchen.

It is unacceptable that prisoners being punished for crimes are then beaten up by other violent prisoners.

The punishment t of incarceration is the loss of liberty, not physical violence by other prisoners!

The Drever case is just the latest example of how violent our prison system is, this was Benjamin Lightbody after his assault at Mt Eden Corrections Facility…

…while we treat prisoners as subhuman, the damage we allow to continue within our prison system has become endemic…

Violence at New Zealand prisons highlighted in Ombudsman’s latest torture reports
Prisoners in New Zealand are subjected to high levels of violence, unacceptable conditions in some units and a lack of constructive activities, according to a government watchdog.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

…our violent prison system is utterly counterproductive, so who is to blame?

Let’s start with the Corporate Mainstream media who love to manipulate our sense of anger and injustice with their ‘if it bleeds it leads’ mentality. Their crime porn myopic news headlines are designed to stoke emotion, anger and sense of injustice all for ratings.

That anger and emotion quickly gets manipulated by ‘get-tough-on-crime’ politicians who sell suffering and draconian prison time as the solution. We, the voters, get sucked into this vortex of media-politics and elect anyone who promises to punish the people we are media triggered to fear and hate.

That leads to anger and hate seeping into social policy and that leads to a prison system built to punish and not reform

We have allowed knee-jerk legislation that seeks to hurt to replace well thought out social policy.

That’s why prisons are so violent and counter productive.

 

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21 COMMENTS

  1. 100% agree. The naked brutality that goes with prison is straight out abuse in state “care”.

    All politicians know it, they just can’t be arsed fixing it. If they are going to have jails to they simply must be safe and if that triples the cost to run them, then so be it.

    Its a remnant of the Victorian era, a giant blind eye turned by the state . It’s not acceptable and the victims of this lack of care should be able to sue the state, big time!

  2. Yes!
    If only Labour hadn’t cancelled National’s new prison construction projects that would have enabled single bunking and safer incarceration for both inmates and warders.

    • Yes Andrew your bullshit solution is a new billion-dollar prison full of our people (Maori) on our confiscated or stolen land nah! not right fuck of.

  3. Martyn, no point pointing fingers at media. They do not run prisons, nor do they set policies.

    Prisons are full of excessive testosterone and mental health issues such as anger, frustrations, depressions, anxiety, addiction withdrawals and people who have lost their humanity.

    Unless policies and programmes are created to engage the prison population into productive activities, violence can not be curbed. This is 100% under government control, and pointing fingers at media will not sort it.

    • Benny? you’re missing the point. Prisoners have not lost their humanity, they are doing it rough styles and as prisoners of the state they must be protected. I’ll add, give them back their human right to vote.

    • So you are suggesting to increase the budget for department of corrections? By how much? Asking for a friend

  4. Who exactly do we vote for to reform prisons? Labour refused to build capacity when prisoners were frying in shipping containers in summer, we’ve had riots burning down inadequate cell blocks.. we can’t even house prisoners let alone look after them. It’s abysmal.

    • We already have almost double the inmate proportion as Ireland (150 inmates/100,000 thousand people cf 84 inmates/100,000 thousand people) so building more prisons to lock more people up is not the answer, while there will be a few people that can be locked up & nobody will miss them in many cases when we lock someone up that leaves hurting people in society which just continue the cycle of crime.

      • Excuse me, we need more prisons just to safely lock up the people we already have incarcerated, not more.

      • Let’s see if we can get passed the censors this time:

        Bonnie, building prison capacity now isn’t about locking up more people – perhaps it wasn’t clear but that wasn’t what I was arguing – it’s about better housing the prisoners we already have. Because overcrowded sweat boxes cause violence and riots.

      • Once more for luck:

        Bonnie, building prison capacity now isn’t about locking up more people – perhaps it wasn’t clear but that wasn’t what I was arguing – it’s about better housing the prisoners we already have. Because overcrowded sweat boxes causes violence and riots.

    • Absolutely dead on @ MartinC
      I believe the problem with crime, criminality and punishment is that it’s a growth industry.
      Unless we remove neoliberalism from our public and private lives, work and general environments, neoliberalism will continue to plague us like the societal disease it is. Neoliberalism is itself a criminal enterprise foisted upon us by criminals as defined by their intent, it’s just that they make sure there are no laws standing with which they can be held accountable. They made the rules and laws so the rules and laws best suit them, not us. Aye Boys? You naughty, naughty little multi billionaires.
      There’s a far greater problem. The problem is of what to do about our politicians who support and promote neoliberalism. Neoliberalism is like a pack of hungry dogs let loose in a kindergarten. they’ll eat everything in sight because that’s what greedy, ever hungry neoliberal corporate dogs do. But what do WE do about those who let the dogs out? So far, nothing. We still believe there’s a chance that our politicians think of our well being before the profits of corporations and banks. Well, they don’t. And they won’t. And we’d best stop pretending they will because they won’t unless they’re forced to. The reason why our politicians don’t and won’t is because we have all the power of a toothless little baby looking into the rapacious, gaping maws of dogs. While many of us live in fear of the power bills etc while missing meals to feed the kids our politicians are being paid high six figures plus entitlements and expenses. That’s OUR money. Is OUR money being being well spent? Be honest! Is it! We have a rich country and there are only five millions of us, we have now nine multi billionaires and four foreign owned banks stealing billions of dollars out of our country in net profits annually and our politicians come up with bullshit ideas on how we can economise in the way we live and if that’s not a criminal-factory then I’m fucked if I know what is.
      Put the blame where the blame deserves to be. Not at the feet of the victim-criminals of a greater criminal elite. But directly at the flat, well heeled feet of our politicians. It’s our politics that’s creating crime and making money off the punishment and only the collective ‘we’ can stop that.
      Here are my ideas. Mandate voting, kick out the foreign owned banks and go with our own, ban house-banking and slap on a 99% capital gains tax on property speculators, free public transport and heavily subcidised public housing. But most importantly request a Royal Commission of Inquiry into our politics and our economy and those involved within it spanning the last *140 years. * Yep. Look it up. Refer refrigerated shipping then let your common sense be your guide to lead yo by the hand through those last 140 years to todays cluster fucks.
      Farmers! Oi! You must watch this.
      Russell Brand talks to Vandana Shiva.
      If you’re the kind of cocky who’ll go “Haw, haw, haw… just a fuckin’ hippy and an Indian. ” Then you’re part of the problem not a part of the solution so shut up and sit down until your brain catches up with your stupidity.
      Russell Brand:
      “Vandana Shiva joined me on Stay Free recently. We discussed complex issues to do with the agricultural and farming industry, possible solutions and the foods that are causing disease around the world…”
      https://youtu.be/FcCLAO2PyoY
      FYI.Vandana Shiva:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandana_Shiva
      I bet the wrap party to this music video was a blast.
      Youtube:
      Baha Men!
      Who Let The Dogs Out!
      https://youtu.be/ojULkWEUsPs

  6. Mind, the government could do its job and run these penitentiaries as humane places or just do fuck all, hire the most compliant members of the public to do the job as a turnkey with the least amount of training possible and of course for the lowest dollar possible. Or it could do differently. Bashed in heads under Labour, fightclubs under National, and somehow everyone ends up beat.
    But someone should tell the realtor that if he claims ‘she / her’ as pronouns he gets to live his sentence in the womens, cause inclusion and progress.

  7. if you want to keep prisoners like that you’d better be prepared to lock all of them up till the day they die….because you’ve created US style psychopathic animals….be very careful what you wish for.

  8. at the risk of you lying about my views gaby, please point out the ‘passion for criminals’ in my post, clue – you won’t be able to….it’s a note for society in general numbskull.

    now to get back to my pro-pal/anti semitic posts now…any luck digging the none existant posts up….thought not.

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