The punishment of incarceration is the loss of liberty, not physical violence
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.
…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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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!
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.
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.
Sinic..are you been sarcastic? I didn’t realise that giving back voting rights will reduce violence!!
So you are suggesting to increase the budget for department of corrections? By how much? Asking for a friend
Prisons are the wild West where a grey zone exists in culture and practice.