Simon Power MP
National Party Justice & Corrections Spokesman

23 May 2007

Corrections admits corruption widespread

Corruption in prisons is clearly much more widespread than the Corrections Minister and his department have been telling the public, says National’s Justice & Corrections spokesman, Simon Power.

“There can be no other conclusion to the Corrections Department’s move to set up a special team to investigate corruption in the prison system.

“This is an admission that there is a problem. If there is no corruption why do they need a corruption unit?

“Both Damien O’Connor and CEO Barry Matthews have been strenuously denying for ages that corruption in prisons is widespread.

“On February 19, Barry Matthews said there ‘a few bad apples’, and ‘We're talking probably about five in the whole organisation.’ And on April 17 he said: I think it would be foolish to say that some staff haven't brought any of this [contraband] in, but I don't believe it's more than a minority of staff.’

“The latest examples of corruption include a media report of a guard at Auckland Prison getting prisoners to build him a car from the ground up using materials supplied by Corrections, in return for bribes of steaks and roasts, and reports to my office of:

Guards getting prisoners to help build sheds at their home. A guard getting prisoners to help build a spit roast machine. Guards’ boats being repaired and refitted in the prison workshop, including a 40ft yacht which was known in the prison as HMS Corrections.

“Till now, Corrections have been saying the problem was restricted to one prison, but these reports show it is much wider than that.

“But though they are now admitting there is a wider problem, I’m not confident this move will make any difference in the long run.

“It seems to be nothing more than shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic.

“It’s extremely unfortunate that this Government’s mismanagement of Corrections has resulted in the public losing confidence in it to such an extent that it has become the laughing stock of the justice sector, and this will do little to change that.

“The only way the public’s confidence will be restored is to change the Minister.”

ENDS

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