And now NZ Prisons are torturing prisoners – again, and their response? “Meh”
So NZ prisons are torturing prisoners…
Prisoner at risk of self-harm tied down for 37 consecutive nights, investigation finds
The use of restraints on mentally ill prisoners amounts to torture and undermines New Zealand’s status as a civilised country, a leading lawyer says.
Nigel Hampton, QC, said a damning investigation into tie-down beds and waist restraints in jails showed the Corrections Department did not appear to have learned from previous inquiries into the care of severely ill people behind bars.
“It’s inhumane and it’s small wonder that it can be described as torture,” he said.
“It’s quite extraordinary that in a first world country which prides itself on its treatment of its citizens that this is happening.”
Hampton, the patron of the prison reform group Howard League, said he was not yet convinced about Corrections’ promises to overhaul mental health services in jails.
…again…
Mob men get cash for jail beatings
Four Mongrel Mob gang members have received thousands of dollars in a secret Government payout to compensate them for being beaten by prison guards in the 1990s.
The men were among nine prisoners whose complaints of systematic beatings and torture at Hawkes Bay’s Mangaroa Prison sparked a ministerial inquiry in 1993.
The compensation and a formal apology come three years after the Solicitor-General’s office decided not to prosecute the prison staff.
International expert to investigate seclusion in New Zealand
The United Nations will fund a review into seclusion and restraint practices in New Zealand following concerns about their use.
The announcement comes after media coverage of the plight of Ashley Peacock, who has been kept in seclusion at a Porirua mental health facility for five years.
His case has been the subject of grave concern for agencies such as the Human Rights Commission after being raised by his family and the media on several occasions during his seclusion.
…Human Beings are deeply social animals. Forced isolation is the worst punishment meted out to us. Losing your liberty IS the punishment when society says you have broken the rules. There is however an element in NZ society who don’t see the loss of liberty as a punishment. Because of the anger they feel towards criminals, whipped up by a media who use crime porn headlines to create emotional connection with the audience, these NZers demand suffering as well as incarceration. Adding suffering to loss of liberty ends up creating people more damaged when they are released than when they first went in.
Allowing fear and spite to shape social policy creates ugly counter-productive results and now that we have ACC investing in SERCO as a private prison contractor, we have a financial incentive to keep locking more and more NZers up. Bill English ritually sheds crocodile tears over the 10 000 incarcerated, yet in the same sentence will always confirm that he intends to build another 1500 bed private mega prison extension at Wiri“.
And Corrections response to all this torture and abuse of prisoners?
A shrug of the shoulders and a “Meh”.
Corrections know that the lynch mob mentality of an easily led electorate manipulated by media and politicians will always have a thirst for suffering with punishment. Corrections know that society doesn’t give a fuck about prisoner rights. Corrections know the public are too stupid, angry and fearful about crime to rationally understand that abusing these prisoners only creates more damaged people entering society.
Corrections knows all this and doesn’t give a fuck because they know you will be led off to some other trivial bullshit within a weeks time.
Corrections know they could solve these problems and eliminate torture and abuse and make real headway with rehabilitation if the Government funded them properly, but because the public would scream at clean, modern, healthy and healing prisons as a luxury hotel for criminals, Corrections knows they can treat these people like scum and we, the political establishment and the corporate media who need crime porn to rate won’t blink a fucking eye.
And that’s the true horror here.
This is quite disgusting to be honest.
We – as you know – are a first world country purportedly. In claiming to be one, there are standards of conduct that we absolutely should abide by and one of those standards is that torture in any form is an absolute no no.
If we do not conform to that standard, we become like Iran and China.
And that is not okay.
Thanks Martyn for showing the continuing hate shown to humans by humans.
This is a cancer on our society and will cause immense damage going forward but perhaps in six months this evil administration will get thrown onto the street as being treated as discarded lepers were during the Roman era, as te saying goes, “what goes around comes around.
it all comes down to having good leadership and we are lacking good leaders in our country. Our standards have dropped and once again this comes down to the poor leadership we have had over the last 8-9 years.
It’s not the people that are stupid, it’s a corrupt government that is stupid in convincing themselves by laying their political blame to the people by saying it’s the people are stupid. Just as Key seems to think that the protesters are hired to protest against the government, so Key picks a section of the terrorist act and uses it as a platform to push a terrorist law through Parliament that basically blames the people as terrorists so he can have them wrongfully arrested without breaking the law himself, when the people were protecting their democratic rights on nuclear-free zoning in New Zeland territorial waters in a non-violent manner, to begin with.
National are the ones that brought in Serco to take over the runnings of the New Zealand prison security system, yet National failed to do an in-depth check on Serco. This came out later. The only good thing that came out of it was the fact that Serco lost their bonuses at the time of the publicity demanding an investigation into the entire debacle.
I guess we’re stuck with National Government corruption until they’re kicked out in the upcoming elections, because sure as buggery, Labour and every other Opposition party ain’t in any rush to use their legal system of political conduct/misconduct against the government. And what’s going to happen with National after then, let them sit back and plot the next round of corruption they’re so accustomed to living by and getting away with? Certainly can’t see the law stepping in and making any arrests for mismanagement and/or corruption against the National Government in a hurry.
I reserve my greater sympathy for the victims of crime, or their families: Blessie Gotingco, Sophie Elliott, Kylie Smith, and others.