If Corrections are this dysfunctional at a leadership level – how will its corruption damage prisoners and why we as NZers are to blame for this
Well, well, well, Corrections Staff involved in the infamous ‘Goon’ Squad are also behind accusations of illegal spying and corruption inside the Christchurch Prison…
‘Goon squad’ deputy leader Doug Smith sacked after major Christchurch prison inquiry
The deputy leader of the infamous “goon squad” has been sacked – the second high-level scalp of a major inquiry that found staff at one of New Zealand’s largest jails illegally spied on inmates and allowed a senior gang member access to a cellphone.Christchurch Men’s Prison regional unit manager Doug Smith was dismissed this week after 17 months on paid gardening leave.
He and two other senior staff – prison director John Roper and security manager John Cooper – were placed on “special leave” when the Department of Corrections launched an inquiry into security issues at the jail in May last year.
…before we go on, let’s just remind everyone what the infamous ‘Goon Squad’ was to fully appreciate the level of State sanctioned fuckwittery we are dealing with here.
Just before the year 2000, prison authorities decided to believe that there was going to be a white supremacist uprising at the Christchurch mens prison. I know. You are thinking, ‘they believed there was going to be a white power uprising at a prison to coincide for the year 2000 – are you sure’?
Yep. That’s what they believed. So believing that a white supremacist uprising was set to occur, Corrections green lighted the creation of an over the top macho pumped up response team nicknamed the ‘Goon Squad’.
Rituals by staff members of the group included stapling their testicles to a table. Yes, you read that right, an initiation ritual was to staple your testicles to the table to show how tough one was.
I don’t remember seeing that in the PSA handbook.
One would imagine OSH would have much to say about it these days.
Don’t think this can get worse? Oh it does.
In an infamous drill at Christchurch prison where the Goon Squad marched into the prison at night using ultra aggressive and hostile tactics, they ‘accidentally’ killed a prisoner in a choke lock.
That those in charge of that insanity rose through the ranks to now become immersed in the new claims of corruption are standard practise for a public service better equipped at projecting the arses of members than justice for those they abuse.
Because we as New Zealanders have allowed ourselves to be emotionally manipulated by mainstream media who use crime porn as a ratings aphrodisiac alongside victims rights groups who use victims pain to champion vengeance over justice, Corrections has become one vast violent, overcrowded hate pit where double bunked jail cells are rape pens.
This bitter harvest is what you reap when spite is injected into social policy.
That’s why it’s difficult to see Corrections sudden reversal of the prison population as anything other than a cynical attempt to pacify a new Government who have demanded kindness instead of a lynch mob…
After five years of continually climbing, the number of prisoners is finally dropping
The prison population has dipped below 10,000 for the first time in more than two years.Since 1987, the number of people locked up had tripled – a result of successive tough law-and-order policies. Politicians have been slow to soften their stance, and change those laws, even though the system was creaking under the pressure.
So the milestone – achieved quietly on Thursday with 9920 inmates behind bars – is the result of an intensive, internal effort by the Department of Corrections.
…so what the hell were Corrections doing before this sudden intensive effort?
We have a rotten public service that is either corrupt, impotent or full of right wing acolytes who have zero interest in making social services anything other than a weapon to beat the undeserving poor with.
If the new Government are serious about rebuilding the public service, a purge alongside new leadership within that public service is desperately required.
New Zealand’s Correction’s Service definitely hasn’t been a success story, with the amount of recidivist crime that occurs here in NZ.
It is really just a training ground for delinquent youths to hone their skills in the Crime Industry and to do some networking for their future careers in the Crime Industry IMHO ?
Back around 1979 when a practicing Reg. Psychiatric Nurse at Carrington Hospital, Auckland, I attended an evening PSA meeting in a building next to the old AEPB in Queen St. Auckland. I was the only woman at that meeting. The rest were male psychiatric “nurses” (they were only EVER JAILERS!) Some of them said that they’d like to hang me out the window (7 floors up!) because they disagreed with my perspective about the role of the nurse. (I had earlier seen 5 male “nurses” stand on the back of a patient at Oakley Hospital [hospital for the “bad mad”]). What a way to restrain a patient!! Joris de Bres chaired that meeting & had little to say about the male “nurses” behaviour!
I often came to the attention of nursing “management” at Carrington because I was always FOR patients – not against them. An assistant “Principal Nurse” came to my office one day & threatened me because I was a “scab” for reporting a male Charge “Nurse” who had assaulted 2 frail, elderly men. It took 8 years before that male Charge “Nurse” was reported in the NZ Nursing Journal as having been de-registered. I wondered how much more harm/damage did he do to patients in “his” ward over those 8 years.