What the case for NZ prisoners engaging in consensual sex actually reveals about NZ Justice
Notorious killer and sex offender loses High Court battle to allow prisoners to have sex
Convicted killer and child sex offender Phillip John Smith has lost a High Court bid to allow prisoners to have sex at Rolleston Prison’s treatment units for child sex offenders.
Smith was jailed for life in 1996 for murdering a man in Johnsonville, Wellington, in December 1995. He had been sexually abusing the man’s son and tracked the family down after they left Wairarapa to get away from him.
He filed a High Court proceeding against the prison director at Rolleston Prison, near Christchurch, for its rule prohibiting sexual activity between male prisoners, alleging it was discrimination against homosexuality.
In his decision, Justice Gerald Nation said he was satisfied the rule was lawful and it protected prisoners from harm and helped reduce reoffending.
Convicted killer and child sex offender Phillip John Smith wanted consensual sex between prisoners to be legal and argued that denying prisoners sex was homophobic.
Phillip John Smith of course was a child sex offender who murdered the father of the child he was molesting, so being lectured on consent by him was always going to be a tough ask, but beyond the damaged evil that is Phillip John Smith was a revealing insight into NZ Justice.
Rolleston Prison’s treatment units for child sex offenders had a very relaxed attitude between prisoner relationships until 2017 when some relationships turned sour and caused issues…
A psychological services manager at the two units for child sex offenders told the court that any sexual related behaviour between residents was viewed as problematic and the prison had a duty of care to the large number of the men in one of the units who had intellectual disabilities and were vulnerable.
The prison director said the rule was introduced in 2017 after some relationships within the unit ended in less than amicable circumstances.
…the fundamental problem is that Prison Authorities couldn’t legitimise sexual relationships between prisoners because the units have huge numbers of mentally ill sex prisoners whose consent couldn’t be properly ascertained.
In short, they couldn’t engage in sexual activity because free consent couldn’t be established.
Just consider what that tells us about prisons in NZ.
That we have a large number of prisoners who are too vulnerable to consent to sex, which begs the question, why are they in prison then, why aren’t they at some type of rehabilitation centre receiving treatment for their mental illness rather than being dumped in a prison as rape bait for more aggressive prisoners?
Have we opted for the cheaper option of just basing a unit inside a prison and calling that rehabilitation?
In NZ our focus is on punishment and an insistence that prisoners suffer, by ruling out consensual sex between prisoners because so many of their prisoners are mentally ill is an alarming reality of what vengeance has mutated our prisons into.
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Oh this is just woefully sad sad sad on all levels. Times are changing is an old cliche but has merit today. Collectively, humpty has gone through and is still going through, an awful lot the past few years. This is the time to bring about change, however incrementally it begins. Mental health is a massive issue. It always has been. But now there are many more people on the planet, so much more prospect of developing empathy, as a species. We need to care more about our special people. That includes the psychopaths, the narcissists, the sex offenders, the disabled, the traumatized, the great unwashed, you and I. Empathy heals. Start by caring. Jmo
*humanity, not humpty lol
Interesting musings Martyn.
The indifference/encouragement of rape/sexual assault in our prisons is exactly what the ‘hang em high” crowd in the likes of the Sensible Sentencing Trust want.
and then there is the double bunking debacle. should be seen as a crime. and no you cant tell who might be a predator amongst prisoners. see pp 50-51 of this research report:
https://www.murdoch.edu.au/_document/News/prison-sexual-assaults.pdf
a youth was put in with an older relative thinking he would be safe. but no he wasnt.
double bunking is abusive. who is accountable for the damage done?
Double bunking was developed to allow stronger prisoners to rape and assault weaker prisons, re-inforcing the ‘punishment’ aspect.
My god Martyn this is a difficult read.
“Just consider what that tells us about prisons in NZ.”
It tells us we are similar to Dulwich school.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9385657/Dulwich-College-breeding-ground-sexual-predators-claims-ex-pupil-open-letter.html
Years ago we had various groups calling for hospitals like Sunnyside & Templeton in Christchurch to be closed & many of the higher grade patients ended up in prison. While the hospital service needed to improve that was not done as for some reason the different groups seemed unable to comprehend how that could be done & you can only assume that they did not care if former patients ended up in prison.
As you succinctly say “why aren’t they at some type of rehabilitation centre receiving treatment for their mental illness” is a better question & it is something that is long overdue.