GUEST BLOG: Arthur Taylor – The One Billion Dollar Extension of Waikeria Prison Must Not Happen

Corrections wants to extend its already massive empire by building a 3000-bed prison at Waikeria at a cost of at least 1 billion dollars.

The new maximum-security prison at Paremoremo opening next month was originally budgeted at 200 million dollars but has ballooned out to 300 million dollars plus. So, in reality the final cost will probably be closer to 1.5 billion dollars.

This prison MUST NOT be built, because it is simply not needed to ensure public safety, and as Andrew Little very sensibly said the “tough on crime” policies of locking up evermore people have not worked. Prisons are Universities of crime.

History tells us that once prisons are built they run at maximum capacity and stay full.
In the late 1960’s Paremoremo was built to replace the already medieval Mt. Eden, that didn’t happen, Mt. Eden wasn’t a close for nearly another 50 years.

So, if Kelvin Davis really does intend to reduce prison numbers by 30% over the next 15 years, a target that is readily achievable if properly implemented by people with a vision that understand prisoners and what leads to their reoffending, without any increased threat to public safety then the Waikeria white elephant simply must not go ahead.

So, how do we deal with the presently ballooning prison muster crisis? Firstly, there must be changes to the idiotic bail laws enacted by National in 2013. There are presently at least 1000 prisoners on remand in New Zealand that could be safely released tomorrow.

Remand prisoners are presumed innocent, why should someone be locked up when they haven’t been convicted of anything, there is little or no chance of them reoffending, and no reason to think that they won’t turn up for their trial or other court proceedings?

Many of those held in custody on remand are eventually not sentenced to imprisonment, so have spent sometimes considerable periods on remand, what purpose did that serve?

Secondly, all prisoners serving sentences of 2 years or less are presently automatically released after serving half of their sentences. Those serving over 2 years must serve all their sentences unless paroled earlier.

Where is the justice in someone serving 2 years and getting released after 12 months yet someone who got 2 years 1 month in many cases serving all their sentence? The parole system is simply is simply not working as it is supposed to, most prisoners are not being paroled as they should be because Judith Collins and National appear to have stacked the Parole Board with the wrong people, who are not applying the legal test of undue risk, but any risk.

As far back as I can remember under both Labour and National, until 2002 prisoners who were not paroled were released after serving 2/3 of their sentences. The sentencing Judge had power to change that if he/she thought the circumstances warranted it. Lifers and those serving preventative detention could only be released by a Parole Board.

The pre-2002 position should be returned to, the changes have simply driven up prison musters with no benefit to public safety, if anything, they have endangered public safety.

By reverting to the pre-2002 position on release the new prisons would be done way with. The billions saved could be used to better supervise and assist those prisoners released into the community.

The government might want to do this in stages, perhaps implementing release at 2/3 of the sentence for those serving 3 or 4 years, then gradually extending back to the pre-2002 position.

As well as effectively dealing with the prison muster crisis this would effectively remove pressure on the Parole Boards, which at present is overwhelmed and unable to do its job properly for sheer number of the cases coming before it.

Many years ago, Mads Andenaes from the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Discrimination came to see me at Paremoremo. He’s from Norway, he told me the overwhelming impression of his visit to New Zealand was the enormous waste of money and human capital, with attended misery, this in a country with similar population to his own. He could not comprehend why this country was spending so much on a failed prison system when Scandinavia in particular, and many other counties had implemented viable alternatives that protect the public safety better. I wonder what Mads would say today when the situation is so much worse.