Well, well, well – so now Mark Mitchell wants co-governance does he?
Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell’s strategies to stem high rates of Māori in jails
Trades training for prisoners and more involvement by hapu and iwi are the strategies proposed by Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell to stem the high rates of Māori in jails.
Mitchell told The Hui host Julian Wilcox there needed to be a genuine partnership between Corrections and iwi and hapu leadership to help rehabilitate and reintegrate Māori prisoners as they came out of the Corrections system.
“The talks that I’m having with iwi leaders that I meet with is quite simply, ‘we cannot do this without your leadership. We cannot do this without you putting a line in the sand also, and saying that there’s been too much inter-generational harm’,” he said.
You can smell the fear from the right.
They’ve over egged their hatred towards Māori, beneficiaries, workers, renters and the environment to sate the sense of culture war vengeance their redneck voters become sexually excited over, but it’s turning the centre away in disgust.
The most recent internal polling suggests Labour ands National are just 5 points apart now and with the really toxic policy cruelty yet to be announced, Mark Mitchell is covering his bases and starting to sing kumbaya my Lord!
The ingredients for a serious prison riot sparked by 501s in our over crowded prison system has already been warned by the Prison Ombudsman and with National about to fill the prisons, Mark is suddenly singing songs about co governance and partnership which is funny when you consider how much glee National have made from weaponising working with Māori as an election tactic.
Now he’s responsible for everything that happens, suddenly Mark wants to work together.
Hilarious.
If Mark wants to do something more than counter productive gang patch bans and use Māori as a political punching bag, what about the pathetic Steps to Freedom payment that hasn’t been changed in 30 years?
Frustration as Steps to Freedom payment for ex-prisoners hasn’t increased in 33 years
Many prisoners recently released from jail are finding the price of freedom comes at a high cost.
At the end of their sentence, inmates get a $350 one-off Steps to Freedom payment to help restart their lives. That amount hasn’t increased for more than three decades.
Advocates say that challenges like finding a job and somewhere to live at a time when ex-inmates are at their most vulnerable increase their risk of reoffending.
Tui Ah Loo is CEO of Te Pā, a kaupapa Māori organisation that helps reintegrate recently released prisoners back into society. She calls the meagre payment “barbaric” and believes it’s a reason many re-offend.
“We’ve had lots of instances where our people have said ‘it’s too hard here. I just want to go back inside. I get three meals a day, a roof over my head, a warm bed’. And it breaks my heart when it happens,” she said.
Of course raising the Steps to Freedom payment would require actual political leadership and a Government prepared to tax the rich, which is near impossible when most right wing voters get sexually excited by the idea of prisoners suffering.
We are locked into counter productive punishment because the electorate are easy to manipulate.
Crime strikes and damages the poor most, but it is the fear of crime from the wealthier suburbs that determines policy.
Nothing will change, things will only get worse.
Wait for the calls for Private Prisons.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media.
Yes, some of these Natzo Ministers are now confronting the reality of where our society is at–and who they actually have to deal with day by day.
“Hang’em high”, “throw away the key”, “bullets are a waste of lead on ’em” does not quite cut it in 2024 when there has been a hell of a lot of Māori capacity building particularly during peak COVID. When disaster strikes Marae give shelter and resources to all, Mercenary Mitchell better wake up.
Mark wants us to fix up the government mess ITS their shit not ours; gangs were created from state abuse in homes like Epuni Boys. Mitchell talks about drawing a line in the sand like he is blaming us (Maori) hello, the best gang is the whanau, and we don’t wear patches unless they are nicotine. But gangs are also a product of prisons, its complex.
Now Mark speaks with his forked tongue of partnership with our people, yet his party is allowing the concept of partnership in the TOW to be poo pooed on by seemore, bloody hypocrites make up your fucken mind. Mark is looking to apportion blame he is as sly as a snake in the grass.
I lived in Epuni in the early 1970s. You ignore that they ended up in the Boys home for a reason in the first place, so the state didn’t start their progress to dysfunction. You can put the fair share of blame on irresponsible parents, same as today 50 years later.
Actually you cannot always blame the parents I have many gang whanau being Māori and their parents were not gang members so your wrong there Robbie who lived in Epuni. The state exacerbated there dysfunction when they stepped over the line by abusing their power and there is no excuse for this and no need to trivialize or pretend the abuse did not happen courtesy of the state.
Sneaky superficial Mitchell is about money and meeting Correction’s cuts not co-governing.
Where else were the savings to be made when Corrections already struggle to recruit staff ? On prisoners of course.
Watch the further leaching of charitable/ iwi/ voluntarism agencies who already work in prisons as rehabilitation programmes are slashed.
What say you Mitchell to addressing the ills of the other 55% ( 2019) non maori criminals ?
As far as Māori are concerned I would think the iteration of National that included Key and Finlayson was probably a better bet.
Yes I spoke to an ex pakeha prisoner last week .He said it is a fucken joke throwing him out of prison with $350 and no where to go or a job .And guess what he is the product of a posh education at ST PETERS at Cambridge .Even though he is from a well off family he has no support or contact with his whanau any more .
While I agree the $350 release money is a joke where was the complaints about the Labour Government not increasing it .They had money to give to the gangs.
Good question Trevor. As you may know, the Ardern regime’s Welfare Expert Advisory Group delivered their findings on “the inadequacy of the reestablishment grant payments, particularly… the Steps to Freedom grant” in February 2019.
I guess there just wasn’t time to, y’know, actually do something in the intervening period until late 2023? It’s not like they had to massively overhaul welfare. They could have just spent five minutes writing a bill that did a one time indexation to inflation.
get maori prisoners in work….
camps
What about the other 50% + of non moari violent offenders ? Co govern with Grey Power maybe ?
Maori are not the ones with this great need for “targeted approaches.”
46% of those incarcerated are Maori.
So what about the other 56%, lattes all round?
I can see why nobody is your name.
Fuck of we ain’t slaves putting us in prison working camps next will be concentration camps. Prisons aren’t geared to do rehab not enough funding only enough money for landlords and tax cuts.
The right are always trying to dive under the minimum wage.
Why doesn’t corrections get prisoners in some form of paid employment, especially those that will be released in 18-24months. The money that prisoners earn could be shared 50/50 with victims and themselves, which they can only spend once they leave prisons.
They are already doing this Benny but when they get out, they have nowhere to live and often they have burnt their bridges with their whanau.
Comments are closed.