No Pride In Prisons

This article details the horrible conditions that climate refugees face in detention centres in the United States of America, which is another part of the prison-industrial complex.

This is experienced by climate refugees around the world, and those who experience this will increase, as human-caused climate change’s environmental effects in the future will lead to a massive increase in climate refugees, which will lead to them seeking asylum in countries that they have not traveled to before, such as here in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

The first way to address the problem of imprisoning climate refugees is the abolition of prisons, police and law courts as well as the establishment of new forms of dispute resolution such as transformative justice, community accountability etc. as detailed in our book Abolitionist Demands (http://ift.tt/2rOsK0G).

What also needs to occur is to engage in environmental and climate justice through addressing the social causes of the existence of climate refugees, which is human-caused climate change, with human-caused climate change being caused by social relations of exploitation and oppression such as capitalism, nation-states, white supremacy, patriarchy etc. and the establishment of post-capitalist and post-state social relations:

“In April, the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, again made headlines after more than 100 immigrant detainees launched a hunger strike to protest the conditions inside the for-profit immigration jail.

The demands reflected many of the concerns originally raised by detainees when they went on strike in 2014: abuse from guards, maggoty food, inadequate access to medical care and exorbitant commissary prices, to name a few. The detainees were also protesting the fact that they were running the prison’s basic services for wages of just $1 a day, some reportedly receiving only a bag of chips in exchange for waxing the prison’s floors.

Conditions at the immigration jail have drawn in local climate activists and other allies, who, in 2015, blockaded three exits where buses and vans usually carry out detainees for deportation. The activists’ interest in the jail is not only grounded in concerns about basic human rights – it’s also about environmental justice.

The 1,500-bed immigration jail, operated by the private prison giant GEO Group, sits adjacent to a federal Superfund cleanup site where a coal gasification plant leeched toxic sludge into the soil for over three decades. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took over the site in the early 1990s as part of its Superfund cleanup of the tar pits, which included monitoring groundwater wells, and stockpiling and capping contaminated soils, according to the News Tribune, Tacoma’s main newspaper. Today, the site is still dotted with drainage ditches, retention ponds and a capped waste pile….

Toxic Jails for Climate Refugees

When it comes to detention and environmental injustice, one great irony is that many of the immigrants the US government locks up in for-profit immigration jails are environmental refugees. This is especially true for immigrants fleeing the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. These refugees have often been pushed to leave their homes by factors that are either directly and indirectly prompted by ongoing climate disruption.

At the peak of the influx of families and unaccompanied children arriving at the US’s southern border, 68,541 unaccompanied minors and 68,445 families were apprehended at the border during the 2014 fiscal year. That year, Central Americans apprehended at the border outnumbered Mexicans for the first time. They did so again in fiscal year 2016, according to Customs and Border Protection.

Many of these families were fleeing skyrocketing homicide rates and rampant gang violence, but these are not the only forces pushing Northern Triangle refugees to risk the perilous journey to the US. In tandem with spiking rates of violence, these countries have also suffered some of the worst droughts in decades, causing farmers to lose their livelihoods and pushing up food prices for everyone else. In fact, in 2015 a World Food Programme study found that drought-induced food insecurity was a main driver of migration out of the Northern Triangle. Dry conditions have continued to batter the region in recent years.

Studies have shown that warming-enhanced drought can contribute to and exacerbate social strife and civil violence, such as in Syria, which was also battered by a drought at the onset of the civil war. Researchers are increasingly concerned that future migrations from Central America and Mexico into the US are likely to be much larger, spurred by the intensifying impacts of climate disruption and climate-exacerbated violence.

As more children and families arrive at the border, at least in part driven by climate-related factors, the US can either welcome them or continue to lock them up in polluted, for-profit immigrant jails.

Either way, more – and larger – migrations are on the way as anthropogenic climate disruption continues apace. Expanding an environmentally racist detention apparatus to greet future migrant influxes won’t stop them. Rather, it perpetuates the socially and environmentally toxic conditions that create climate-driven mass migrations in the first place, while cruelly twisting the real solutions to the crisis – climate and environmental justice – on their heads.”

Continuing our coverage of the Ombudsman’s recently released report about the horrible conditions within Spring Hill prison, here is a press release by the Human Rights Commission:

“A report released by the Ombudsman’s Office has confirmed why regular monitoring of places of detention is so valuable, says the Human Rights Commission.

The OPCAT report, Report on an unannounced inspection of Spring Hill Corrections Facility Under the Crimes of Torture Act 1989, is part of the Chief Ombudsman’s commitment to publish reports from an intensified monitoring programme.

The report outlines concerns with the challenges that newly introduced remand prisoners, increases in prisoner populations and double bunking in one-prisoner cells present. It also outlined a range of recommendations for improvements.

Chief Commissioner David Rutherford says the report has highlighted the need for regular monitoring of these sorts of facilities to ensure New Zealand’s places of detention are meeting international standards.

"As regular monitoring under OPCAT has shown, there is a need for our detention facilities to continue to improve their practices. The best way this can be done is through regular checks and by meeting recommendations made by inspection bodies.

"We commend the Chief Ombudsman for releasing this new report, which is consistent with a recommendation made in international expert Dr Sharon Shalev’s report, Thinking outside the box? A review of Seclusion and Restraint practices in New Zealand, released by the Commission earlier this year.

"It important that we have a detention system that is transparent and accountable when it comes to how they treat some of our society’s most vulnerable. We are pleased that the Office of the Ombudsman now has the capacity to deliver these important reports on a more regular basis,” Mr Rutherford says.“

This article details the connections between the Spring Hill prison riot and the current horrible conditions of the Spring Hill prison as revealed by the Ombudmsman’s recently released report, showing that little has changed there:

“This footage may have been leaked to Newshub four years after the riot, but a surprise inspection by the Ombudsman has revealed this jail still has burning issues.

Almost 40 percent of prisoners are locked down in cells for more than 20 hours a day, some for up to 22 hours at a stretch.

Cell temperatures averaged at 28degC, with no air vents working, leading to intolerable conditions.

All of this is compounded by having two prisoners in cells originally designed for one, with double bunking leading to increased assaults and incidents.”

“A Corrections report into the riot released earlier this year pointed the finger at gang-affiliated prisoners, tanked up on contraband homebrew.

But it also identified other factors which fuelled discontent in the lead-up, including a poor security plan to manage double bunking, and some prisoners being locked down for 26-hour stretches in the build-up to the riot.

It’s raised concerns that this latest report shows some of the same conditions still exist.

"We’ve still got double bunking, we’ve still got people that are being locked up 23 hours a day - and sometimes even longer,” Labour Corrections’ spokesperson Kelvin Davis said.“

On August 29th, University of Auckland professor Tracey McIntosh will be holding a talk, Imagining a World Without Prisons, where she will discuss prison abolition. You can find additional details below. If you are interested, then BOOK NOW, as there are only 8 tickets left!

“It is easy to dismiss inmates as troubled and irredeemable people, but this stigma can lead to further marginalisation and a lack of understanding of the real issues behind jail sentences. The global over-representation of indigenous peoples in prisons speaks to lives of restriction and constraint both inside and outside of the wire.

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of incarceration in the developed world and in New Zealand, mass incarceration is Māori incarceration. This talk will draw strongly on the experience and expertise of incarcerated people and will begin a discussion on what strategies we need to help them rehabilitate and move toward decarceration.

BIO

Tracey McIntosh (Tūhoe) is a Professor of Indigenous Studies and Co-head of Te Wānanga o Waipapa (School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies) at the University of Auckland. She is the former Co-director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence. Her recent research focuses on incarceration (particularly of Māori and indigenous peoples) and issues pertaining to poverty, inequality and social justice.

She was a Fulbright Visiting Lecturer in New Zealand Studies at Georgetown University and has won numerous teaching awards including a national tertiary teaching excellence award. She is the Co-editor of AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples.”

Continuing over coverage of the Ombudsman’s recently released report into the horrible conditions of and the structural and interpersonal violence happening within Spring Hill Prison, here is 1 News’ article on this:

“One in three Spring Hill’s prisoners say they’ve been assaulted during their sentence, according to a new report.

But only one in three of those assaulted had reported it and didn’t believe that any action would be taken.

Around the same number of prisoners said there was not a member of staff they could turn to for help with a problem, and some prisoners believe there wouldn’t be confidentiality if they reported an issue.

The ombudsman’s report was based on an unannounced inspection of Spring Hill Corrections Facility in February.

Just under half of prisoners said they felt unsafe at the time of inspection.

Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier recommended more staff interactions with prisoners to improve security and prisoner staff relationships, and an anti-bullying strategy needs to be implemented, alongside the gang management and violence reduction strategy.

The toilets were unscreened and visible on CCTV, and those screens could be viewed by anyone entering the staff base and "presented a significant privacy issue”…

Prisoners were critical about being able to get sufficient clothing, bedding and toiletries as well as arrangements for access to their property, and mail distribution.

Judge Boshier says the lack of ‘prison essentials’ was of concern and there was a lack of towels, sheets, pillows, clothing and footwear.

At the time of inspection, Spring Hill Prison housed 1038 male prisoners. The prison was originally designed to house 650 sentenced prisoners at the latter stages of their sentence.

However, the function and focus of the prison has changed considerably with double-bunking and the introduction of remand prisoners, who make up 27 per cent of inmates.“

The Ombudsman has released a report detailing the horrible conditions of and the structural and interpersonal violence happening within Spring Hill Prison:

“Nicotine patches given to prisoners to help them quit smoking have become highly-valued tradable commodities - leading to standovers and bullying.

The finding is contained in a damning Ombudsman report on Spring Hill prison. It also found a third of inmates claimed to have been assaulted and half feel unsafe.

There is also a "pervasive influence” at the prison of new psychoactive substances that mimic the effects of drugs such as cannabis and heroin, the report states, and nicotine patches had become a “highly-tradable” commodity resulting in bullying and standovers.

Spring Hill Prison opened near Meremere in 2007 and holds 1038 male prisoners with security classifications ranging from minimum to high. The prison was originally designed to hold 650 prisoners. Double-bunking was introduced in 2010, and remand prisoners introduced.

Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has today released his office’s report on an unannounced inspection of the prison, carried out under the Crimes of Torture Act 1989.

Boshier noted weaknesses in record keeping and monitoring needed to assure the safe operation of Spring Hill, particularly in relation to use of force, segregation and management of at-risk prisoners.

Inspectors working with his office found some use of force forms had not been completed properly, and some were missing altogether, and one in five staff at the prison weren’t up-to-date with their control and restraint training.

On the latter failing, inspectors were told there weren’t enough instructors in the region.

Prisoner responses to a questionnaire and an interview with the prison director revealed there has been an increase in violence at the prison, including prisoner-on-prisoner assaults.

Fifty-four per cent of prisoners surveyed said they felt unsafe in the prison at some time, and 48 per cent felt unsafe at the time of inspection.

A third claimed they had been assaulted in the prison, but only one in three of those assaulted reported the incident.

“Prisoners stated that they had no confidence that any action would be taken,” Boshier noted in his report.

“Prisoners were also critical about many aspects of life at the prison, including their ability to obtain sufficient clothing, bedding and toiletries as well as arrangements for access to their property, and mail distribution.”

Time spent out of cells was limited for high-security prisoners and those on voluntary segregation and remand, with 39 per cent of prisoners surveyed reporting they had fewer than four hours out of their cell each day.

“This was compounded by having two prisoners in cells originally designed for one, and prisoners being required to eat all meals in their cell,” Boshier noted….

Chief Human Rights Commissioner David Rutherford said the report highlighted the need for regular monitoring of prisons.

“It is important that we have a detention system that is transparent and accountable when it comes to how they treat some of our society’s most vulnerable.”…

Inspectors observed gang members giving out lunches without supervision, and gang members held positions of responsibility in most units. Without supervision this provided an opportunity for standovers and bullying. Corrections told the Ombudsman’s office that there was no suggestion of standover tactics relating to the distribution of food…

Budget 2017 set aside more than $1 billion over four years to help cope with the country’s booming prison population.

The prison population passed 10,000 inmates last year, with the Government planning on spending billions on new prisons including at Waikeria and looking at double-bunking and reopening closed wings.“ (http://ift.tt/2w7Neor).

“In March, the Family and Whānau Violence Bill was introduced before Parliament with the stated goal of providing “the levers and tools that help protect victims and hold perpetrators to account.”¹ The levers and tools it proposes include the creation of new prison sentences, the lengthening of sentences, and making access to bail more difficult.

This bill seeks to end the epidemic of domestic violence through incarceration.

The idea that protecting victims of domestic and sexual violence can be done by locking away the people responsible is a very attractive one. Victims absolutely need justice. They need to be supported and feel secure in knowing that the person who harmed them won’t continue to do so. Historically, however, this has never been an effective solution.

In New Zealand, prisons were established specifically to suppress insurgency among Māori who were pushing to retain their social, economic, and political power. Prisons emerged to displace them so that their land could be bought by settlers. Even today, prisons still exist to suppress, brutalise, and dehumanise.

It should come as no surprise, then, that locking away violent people only serves to make them more violent. Assaults both by other prisoners and by Corrections staff are a regular occurrence. Sexual assault is rampant following the implementation of double-bunking prisoners in single-prisoner cells due to overcrowding. And all prisoners are sexually assaulted by Corrections staff by way of regular strip searches.

So the Government’s solution to domestic and sexual violence is to meet it with more sexual violence?

Of course, those with wealth and social capital are often not criminalised for acts of domestic and sexual violence. From Johnny Depp to Woody Allen to Donald Trump, people of power are consistently excused for their actions while their victims are accused of lying or seeking attention. Prisons, on the other hand, are filled up with poor people, people who are socially and economically deprived, people without wealth or privilege.

The wealthy and respectable will continue to act in violent and harmful ways because they know they can. Accountability is not demanded of them. Meanwhile, those who are criminalised will be subjected to a punitive and violent criminal justice system. They will come out traumatised and more prone to violence, and will continue to either victimise or be victimised.

Our response to a problem as serious as domestic violence cannot be to just move violence from the family home to the prison — we must address it head-on. Prisons can never be used for meaningful accountability and rehabilitation because prisons and patriarchy come from the same source.

We have to be brave and imagine a world without prisons. We must demand accountability of perpetrators of sexual assault, but in ways that do not isolate and dehumanise them.

We need infrastructure that can support victims and help perpetrators to rehabilitate, or else there can be no justice, no end to the cycle.

We need to end poverty, implement healthcare, social housing, quality education on sex and consent in schools, and rehabilitation programmes to help with addiction and substance abuse.

Prisons are fundamentally incompatible with this kaupapa, something our settler-colonial capitalist government cannot and will not provide.”

This article details the continuing process of prisons in Aotearoa/New Zealand becoming the place where those with mental health problems are increasingly sent to. Prisons are institutions of interpersonal and structural violence and social control, and it is due to this that they are not the place for those with mental health problems to be sent to in order to be treated.

Due to this, in our book Abolitionist Demands, we have the demands “6. Support publicly-funded treatment-on-demand programmes for addiction and mental health in emancipatory, non-carceral settings.” and “21. End the practice of incarcerating intellectually disabled people.”

Long-term, mental health problems and other forms of social harm can only be addressed through the abolition of prisons, police and law courts, through the causes of social harm being handled such as poverty, sexism, racism, lack of access to adequate mental health services etc. and the establishment of new forms of dispute resolution institutions such as community accountability, transformative justice etc.

“For four weeks, Jennifer Hira was constantly on edge.

The fear stemmed from the persistent worry she had for her son Richard Rewiti, who at the age of 20 was jailed for the first time in his life.

"I was afraid for him, but angry at the same time,” the South Taranaki woman says.

Her fury was directed at the mental health system.

“I was not satisfied with what they were doing to help Richard,” she says.

“I blamed them for him being in prison.”

Last month, Rewiti - a diagnosed schizophrenic - was kicked out of his supported accommodation in New Plymouth after smashing holes in the wall and damaging property.

His next placement at an emergency shelter lasted less than a week, after he got angry and punched a hole in the door.

Left to live on the streets, Rewiti broke into two businesses looking for money to buy food and a place to sleep. When he couldn’t find the former, he went and waited outside the police station and was later arrested and charged. With no bail address available, Rewiti was sent to jail.

Hira is well aware of the difficulties that come with her son’s mental illness - they’re the reason he can’t live with her anymore. Rewiti punched several holes in the wall of her rental home and damaged other parts of the property which put her at risk of eviction.

From the young man who used to love swimming, basketball, cricket and golf, Rewiti’s behaviour and personality began to change in his mid-teens and he became increasingly unpredictable, his mother says.

His mood could change just like that,“ Hira says.

Concerned about the changes, Hira sought medical help for her son and three doctors diagnosed the same malady - schizophrenia, a chronic illness which can effect the way you think, feel and behave.

But despite an expert opinion delivered to the court after Rewiti’s initial appearance, which stated supported accommodation and ongoing support was needed to ensure his rehabilitation, this never came.

Instead of getting the care he needed in the community, he ended up in prison.

It is a situation Rewiti’s lawyer Nathan Bourke calls a disgrace.

Much of the time Bourke spent on Rewiti’s case, the things he was doing for him were more like what a social worker would do than someone in the legal profession.

"In some ways it’s exactly what these people need,” he says.

Court documents show Bourke went to some lengths to get help for Rewiti, including seeking political intervention through an email that made it all the way to the desk of Health Minister Jonathan Coleman.

In the end, an inpatient bed was found for Rewiti, but without the ongoing support for him in the community upon his release, Bourke says he wouldn’t be surprise if he re-offended again.

His concern doesn’t begin and end with Rewiti.

Another case in Taranaki has been the plight of homeless New Plymouth man Andrew Wharehoka, who at 29 years of age is bankrupt, suffering from a psychotic illness and living on the streets.

Wharehoka is trespassed from 24 places around New Plymouth and breaches of these orders regularly land him back in court, and sometimes in jail.

Bourke says there appears to be little tolerance in society for those living on the margins.

“We want it out of sight and out of mind,” he says about the issue.

Bourke’s frustration is nothing new according to senior defence counsel Paul Keegan, who is also based in New Plymouth.

It has been apparent for years that the criminal justice system is increasingly having to deal with people presenting with mental health issues, he says.

But Keegan believes the responses available to the court - which includes fines, community work, or jail - are completely inappropriate.

And with few options to assist, little changes.

“Over the years we see the same people coming back over and over again, for the same things,” Keegan says.

He says it’s sometimes the very manifestation of their illness that gets them into trouble, which could be argued in Rewiti’s case.

Prior to moving to Taranaki, Rewiti lived in supported accommodation in Palmerston North. During his stay there, he also damaged property, but instead of being kicked out, he was responsible for paying back the damage.

For Graeme Moyle, a decision by a mental health provider to enforce a no-alcohol rule at its facility, had tragic consequences for his family.

In February 2007, Matthew John Ahlquist was asked to leave a psychiatric unit where he had been living voluntarily after being caught out drinking alcohol.

Three months later, Moyle’s brother Colin met the homeless Ahlquist on an Auckland street and offered the man a bed.

But the relationship soon soured over a dispute over rent and Colin was killed two days later, after being beaten and set on fire.

“His mental health had just deteriorated to the point where he killed Colin,” Moyle says of Ahlquist, who was later found not guilty of murder on the grounds of insanity.

Moyle, who describes himself as an independent victim advocate, says the lack of accommodation options in the community is directly linked to the nation’s rising prison population (which now sits at more than 10,000 people) and that the Corrections Department is becoming a “de-facto mental health facility”.

“I think it’s disgraceful really,” he says.

A record number of New Zealanders - 162,222 - sought mental health assistance in 2015, 91 per cent of which were treated in the community.

A study, completed in the same year, shows the prevalence of mental health disorders among the nation’s offenders, with 62 per cent experiencing a mental health or substance abuse disorder, while 20 per cent suffered both.

Moyle believes there is an urgent need to boost the number of early intervention inpatient beds in the community.

“You could reduce the prison muster significantly if some of the people in there were actually dealt with properly by mental health services before they get that far,” he says.

Dr John Crawshaw, director and chief advisor of mental health at the Ministry of Health, was unable to comment on the nationwide demand for supported accommodation, as contracts were managed by individual district health boards (DHBs).

But if Taranaki’s experience is anything to go by, bed availability across the country will be at a premium. Recent figures provided by the Taranaki District Health Board show the bulk of the region’s 30 supported accommodation placements are already filled.

Crawshaw says the management of clients in supported accommodation placements was also an issue for DHBs.

“We do know that there are some people who have high social needs as well as mental illness and that’s a problem worldwide - not just in New Zealand.

"This means that people living in supported accommodation or inpatient mental health units may have other conditions which from time to time manifest in difficult behaviours. These conditions can include substance abuse problems, anxiety or depression requiring a multi-disciplinary approach,” Crawshaw says.

“However, we can say it is not a general policy to charge people with offences and is likely to be something a DHB would only consider as a matter of last resort.”

Auckland advocate Michelle Kidd says the decision to criminalise the symptoms of mental illness is something she sees everyday in her work.

She says the situation was “chronic” in New Zealand’s biggest city.

“When have nowhere to go, they go to prison,” she says bluntly.

“We do not have the capacity to deal with mentally unwell people in Auckland, a lot of them end up homeless.”

Kidd, who was awarded a Queen’s Service Medal in 2010 for services to the community, works for Te Kaihono ki te Rangimarie and assists some of the most vulnerable who appear in courts around Auckland.

Once seen as a group who slipped through society’s cracks, Kidd says the gap has become more like a “great chasm”.

This week, she stood in the dock alongside a young man who would have been sent to jail were it not for some compassion shown from the judicial bench.

“The only reason he would have gone to prison is because he had nowhere else to go,” she says.

“If he had gone to prison, he would have deteriorated more.”

A collaborative effort between all the services at the court saved the man from this fate, but it’s not a solution available to everyone.

Others can end up in jail or commit suicide - a sad set of outcomes by anyone’s measure.

“The money that’s used for mental health, I don’t know where it goes but it doesn’t trickle down to the real people that need it,” Kidd says.

​In this year’s Budget, the government announced a $224 million boost in funding for the mental health sector.

The money has been tagged to several projects, including to better manage and support prisoners at risk of self harm and additional support for DHB run mental health and addiction services.

While the extra funding was welcomed, some critics say it’s not enough and more work is needed to ensure it is being spent on interventions which work.

Meanwhile, in Richard Rewiti’s case, his mother best describes the situation as a “waiting game”.

Thanks to her efforts following his release from the inpatient unit, Rewiti now lives on his own, in a rented unit in Hawera.

His support includes daily visits from his mother and mental health nurses, along with regular monitoring from his probation officer.

“He seems to be doing alright. He’s okay at the moment,” Hira says.

“I try and do the best I can for him.”

No Pride in Prisons supports this measure, but this does not go far enough, as the reason why benefit fraud occurs is because due to social causes such as poverty, sexism, racism etc. that are caused by exploitative and oppressive social relations such as the state, capitalism, patriarchy, white supremacy etc. which cannot be addressed through the law courts and prisons.

Due to this, in our book Abolitionist Demands, there is the demand “23. Decriminalise benefit fraud and stop criminalising beneficiaries.” (http://ift.tt/2rOsK0G).

In the long-term, benefit fraud can only end with end of the social causes that lead to it occurring. In addition, the abolition of prisons, police and law courts must occur, and new dispute-resolution mechanisms must be established, such as community accountability, transformative justice etc.

“An amnesty for beneficiaries who break the law is needed so they are not threatened with more poverty if they reveal their circumstances, Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei says.

Earlier this month, Mrs Turei revealed that as a young solo mother she did not tell Work and Income how many flatmates were living with her because her benefit would be cut.

She said that since speaking out, she had learned of others in the same situation.

In Parliament yesterday, Mrs Turei asked the government to offer an amnesty to every current beneficiary so they could talk to Work and Income about their full entitlements without risking investigation or financial punishment.

The idea found no favour with Social Development Minister Anne Tolley, who told Parliament that record numbers were coming off the benefit.

She said it was a huge success that 60,000 children in New Zealand no longer lived in households dependent on a benefit.

When Mrs Turei was asked by Morning Report if she was aware the Department of Social Welfare had instituted a penalty-free benefit amnesty in the 1990s, she said she was not.

"We would need to make sure if we had another amnesty now, perhaps because we’ve cracked open the conversation, that every single beneficiary is aware of it.”

She was unsure whether the amnesty would have been in force at the point when she was not telling Work and Income about her extra flatmates, and she might not have needed an amnesty at that time.

But if she had, she would have used one. “What they may have been able to tell me, for example, is that, apparently, you can have boarders when you are on the DPB, so I didn’t know that either.”

She had offered to meet with Work and Income and would then be able to check details in her file.

“It was 25 years ago, but what I do know now is that people in the same situation will not go to WINZ if they fear they will be punished financially for saying what their circumstances are.”

She said constituents had told her they were having take on cash jobs to keep their head above water, and were fearful of the consequences from Work and Income if they confessed.

“It is absolutely unacceptable that people are forced into that kind of abject poverty.”

The first step was to ensure benefit levels were high enough so people were not forced to break the rules to survive.

“As long as we know that people are getting sufficient to pay the rent, put food on the table and have decent lives … then if there are cases of serious fraud after that you can deal with those.”

Double-bunking is internationally recognised as contributing to rates of violence and rape. Corrections has pressed forward with this policy despite reams of evidence showing how harmful it is because they need to conceal the massive overcrowding crisis in this country’s prisons.

A member of No Pride in Prisons, Emilie Rakete was interviewed on the Department of Corrections has no yet finished the Transgender Action Plan that they had promised to create in late 2015:

“Eighteen months on, the Department of Corrections has yet to produce the Transgender Action Plan that would ensure the safety of trans prisoners. The Auckland Pride Board did not allow the Department to march in the February 2017 Parade due to this lack of action. Ms Lexie Matheson, acting co-chair of the Auckland Pride Board says the ongoing delay “is of concern”.

Corrections were allowed to march in the February 2016 parade as the result of their promise in late 2015 to produce the Plan. At that parade, prison abolitionist group People Against Prisons Aotearoa, (PAPA) brought the parade to a temporary halt, protesting the perceived mistreatment of transgender prisoners. PAPA spokesperson Emilie Rakete says that as a queer woman, seeing no plan appear after eighteen months is “disappointing”.

Double Bunking

Some male-to-female trans prisoners are still being double-bunked with male prisoners, which in the past has led to the trans prisoner being harmed. Neil Beales, Chief Custodial Officer for the Department, states that since February 2014 transgender inmates, including those pre- and mid-gender-transition, have been able to apply to be placed in a prison where they identify with the gender of the prisoners managed in that prison. However Ms. Matheson says that it can take months for a prisoner’s application for facility reassignment to be processed. “Nothing has been done” to formally change the policy on double-bunking, says Ms. Matheson.

The Department claims that transgender prisoners are accommodated in single cells and may only share cells with other transgender prisoners who have the same sex assigned at birth, and have consented to share a cell. Corrections reports there are around 12 to 20 trans prisoners nationwide.

Isolation cells

A second issue is the continuing practice of isolating trans prisoners for up to twenty-three hours per day. The United Nations has categorised this treatment as “torture”. Last October, four members of PAPA were arrested while they protested at a Corrections facility in Hamilton over the isolation of a transgender woman prisoner at Spring Hill facility in the Waikato. The Department has justified this policy, saying the woman was isolated “for her own safety”.

Media spokesperson for PAPA Emilie Rakete, labelled the Department’s actions “transphobic” and expressed serious concerns that the woman would harm herself if the isolation continued. Ms Rakete says that this practice “absolutely is still occurring” and that there has so far been no legislative change to safeguard against it.

No Evidence of More Rainbow Staff in Prisons

After reaching out in October 2016 to several rainbow media outlets, inviting interest from individuals in the rainbow community to apply for jobs in prisons, the Department of Corrections has yet to provide evidence of any new rainbow staff despite requests from Express. Speaking on behalf of the Department, Neil Beales informs express that due to privacy policy, the sexuality or gender identity of candidates is not asked or recorded. Lexie Matheson states that as far as Pride knows, “No action has been taken” to hire more gay staff.

PAPA spokesperson Emilie Rakete says that as far as her prisoner advocacy group is concerned, more gay staff will make little difference to the situation. “Maori prison guards do not make prison less racist. Gay prison guards do not make prison any less traumatic for rainbow prisoners”, she says.

The Department began a major staff recruitment drive in March 2016 to deal with a mounting prison population now numbering over 10,000. The drive has so far added more than 850 new personnel.

Pride Has The Door Open

Pride co-chair Lexie Matheson is herself a transgender woman. A formidable and well-known figure in the Auckland rainbow community, she says that her experience of treatment by the police has been “appalling to say the least”. “My commitment to bringing about change with both the NZ Police and the Department of Corrections has been deeply personal”, she says. “What we want is for Corrections practice to mirror policies. The policies are OK, the practice much less so. I guess staff who step out of line in this area should be held accountable.” She looks forward to the completion of the Action Plan by the Department, saying “Pride has the door open.”

The launch of this haka is just another instalment in Corrections’ trivial attempts to expand the Māori cohort of its Corrections Officers. In spite of these attempts, the Māori prison population continues to skyrocket, as it has done for decades.

Simply increasing the proportion of Māori officers not only fails to address the broader underlying causes of Māori mass incarceration, but also disguises the inherent violence of the prison with a veneer of progressive biculturalism:

“The Department of Corrections has launched a new haka in a push to get more Māori working in prisons.

Forty-six new recruits took up the challenge to perform the haka at their graduation ceremony in Wellington.

The haka is non-iwi affiliated and neutral, and is meant as a challenge for Maori to step up and accept the role of being a change agent working as a Corrections Officer

It is also achallenge for Maori offenders to rise up and be all that they are called to be, and to not return to prison but be the role-models that their families and communities needed them to be.

New recruit and haka leader Quentin Manuel said learning the haka was a difficult feat for many members in his cohort who come from different backgrounds and cultures.

"As corrections officers, we are dealing with people who are challenged with everyday problems that we probably take for granted.

"The haka was our challenge as corrections officers - it’s getting out of your comfort zone, it’s learning a new culture and a new language. And then going out there and performing that haka.”

Mr Manuel grew up in Otara in South Auckland where he was often exposed to a life of gangs and violence.

He said the police set a positive example growing up and it became a calling for him to work in corrections.

Mr Manuel said many of his family members were still in prison.

“I prove to them that if you put your mind to it and set some goals, like becoming a corrections officer, it can happen.”

Māori Director for the department Neil Campbell said just over 20 percent of the 8000 correction officers in New Zealand are Māori.

He said the haka will set the challenge for even more Māori to take up the role.

“One thing that resonates with Māori is the idea of taking up a challenge.

"It also becomes a mechanism for unifying those correction officers and reminding them that this work is challenging, that this work does take people with humility and with compassion for others.”

Mr Campbell said it is important Māori in prisons are surrounded by positive Māori role models who will shape their behaviour when they are released back into their communities.

“Many people probably don’t feel that prisoners deserve compassion or dignity or humility or any of those things but ultimately the vast majority of these people are going to come back and live in their communities.

"You want people working with them who are able to role model the types of behaviours and attitudes we’d like to see them come back into the community with.”

Mr Manuel agreed, and said Māori prisoners need to see strong Māori role models - who share their culture and who can relate to their unique life experiences while they’re in prison.

He said there is a relationship between Māori prisoners and Correction workers that stem from their similar cultural roots.

“They know that I’m an officer but they also know that I have a background of marae and anything to do with Māori, so they are comfortable.”

Mr Campbell said Corrections was already the second biggest employer of Māori in the country within the public sector, and he wanted to continue to build that number.“

The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) has failed to recognise that in this case, the conduct of the police led to the killing of an innocent person. This is an example of how the police are a social institution that exists to maintain the existence of social relations of exploitation and oppression, such as the state, capitalism, white supremacy, heteropatriarchy etc. through the use of violence.

This decision by the IPCA illustrates the point that we made in our book Abolitionist Demands under the demand “1. Increase funding to the Independent Police Conduct Authority and ensure its ability to hold police to account.” that “No Pride in Prisons recognises that even a fully funded, powerful IPCA will not be able to undo all of the harm done by the New Zealand Police, as outlined in these abolitionist demands. Ultimately, we demand the abolition of the New Zealand Police.”

“Police were justified in chasing a car that crashed, killing a passenger, at Porirua in May 2016, the Independent Police Conduct Authority has found.

The 69-second chase was generally conducted in line with policy, although at one point the police officer had turned off his siren and forgotten to turn it on again, authority chairman Sir David Carruthers said.

"Given the short duration of the pursuit, the officer carried out an appropriate risk assessment and turned his mind to abandoning the pursuit on more than one occasion,” Carruthers said.

Damian Andrew Lawson’s Lexus car attracted police attention when parked near Titahi Bay Rd, Porirua, on May 21, 2016, a Saturday night, about 8.30pm.

A check revealed several potential problems with the car, including that it was the wrong colour recorded for the licence plates it displayed. When police followed it, Lawson would not stop. Lawson drove at speed, and on the wrong side of the road, including going the wrong way around a major roundabout.

He kept driving, lost control, crashed through a fence in Kenepuru Drive, and into a tree.

The only other person in the car, a young woman who had just turned 21, was killed. Her name was suppressed in court.

Lawson pleaded guilty to reckless driving causing her death. On May 19, two days short of the crash anniversary, he was sentenced to five years’ jail.

There had been a warrant out for Lawson’s arrest for failing to appear in court, including on two charges of driving while suspended.

The car he was driving had expired warrant of fitness and registration. Stolen licence plates were in the boot. Lawson’s blood contained methamphetamine, cannabis and drugs for pain relief and a local anaesthetic.

On Thursday the Independent Police Conduct Authority released its report on police actions before the crash.

The authority found that police communication during the pursuit was generally in line with policy and the dispatcher managed it well. The police officer’s way of driving, and speed, were appropriate.

Acting Wellington police district commander Superintendent Steve Kehoe said the death of the young woman was entirely avoidable.

It would not have happened if the driver had stopped when police signalled him, Kehoe said.“

No Pride in Prisons is in full solidarity with state housing tenant Niki Rauti’s struggle against eviction from the state house she lives in, as it is part of the struggle by state housing tenants and others to ensure universal access to housing to all working people in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

We are also in solidarity due to our demand within our book Abolitionist Demands “8. Apply the funds saved by defunding the New Zealand Police to state housing and accessible housing for the homeless and previously incarcerated.” (http://ift.tt/2rOsK0G).

Finally, we support this because we argue that social harm occurs due to social causes such as poverty, racism, sexism, and other social problems that exist due to social relations of exploitation and oppression such as the nation-state, capitalism, white supremacy, cisheteropatriarchy etc.

As a result of this, we argue that the only way to substantially reduce and address social harm is through abolishing prisons and police, implementing new dispute resolution mechanisms such as transformative justice, community accountability etc. and addressing the causes of social harm, with ensuring universal access to housing being part of this, as it addresses one aspect of poverty.

“An Auckland beneficiary is taking her fight to remain in her state home of 30 years to the High Court, despite an earlier eviction notice.

Glen Innes resident Niki Rauti has been fighting to stay in her state home since being issued a 90-day eviction notice in October 2016 by housing developer the Tamaki Regeneration Company (TRC).

Rauti’s home is one of 2800 state homes that TRC plans to demolish and replace with 7500 new homes over the next 15 years. TRC is jointly owned by the Government and Auckland Council.

A court date of September 21 has been set and Rauti has been granted a stay of proceedings, meaning TRC will not be able to take eviction action until legal proceedings are finished.

Rauti disputed the first eviction notice in October and took her fight to the Auckland District Court in May in an attempt to appeal a possession order of her home, granted by the Tenancy Tribunal in February.

In June, the Auckland District Court upheld the Tenancy Tribunal’s judgment, giving TRC the legal right to evict Rauti.

However, Rauti and her supporters have taken the matter to the High Court.

Rauti is supported by a government benefit and has lived at her Taniwha St home since 1985.

She said in June her home had gone into "lock down” and would remain that way “for as long as it takes”.

The group’s representative Lisa Gibson said protesters supporting Rauti had pledged to stay for as long as she needed them.

Gibson said they were catching up on some rest until the court date.

Rauti’s house is one of six properties to be demolished together and replaced with 12 new, four-bedroom houses, expected to be completed by April 2018.

TRC has previously offered Rauti a newly built home to move into.

She said in January those houses were not good enough.“