Robson: Who Is Going To Correct Corrections?

Who Is Going To Correct Corrections?

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I think I might hold the record for having served the longest time as a minister of Corrections. Somehow I don’t think Damien O’Connor is going to take that honour from me.

But Damien O’Connor , who would rather have a prestigious ministerial portfolio, is not at fault as an individual because the issues that have been raised with the death, or in reality execution, of Liam Ashley are part of a wider set of social issues which in general political and leaders have failed to deal with boldly and seriously and instead have participated in a political debate, or rather slanging match, that , in the words of criminologist Elliot Currie , has become increasingly primitive and detached from what we know about the roots of crime and the uses and limits of punishment.

That is why I found the fulminations of politicians like Simon Power of National and Ron Mark of New Zealand First, especially a New Zealand First politician, on the tragic death of Liam Ashley to be hypocritical in the extreme. These parties have the honour of leading the debate, or rather slanging match, on crime to lower and lower levels of absurdity in the law and order auction.

And is it any wonder that the private provider Chubb, one of the firms that both parties want to hand the public prison service in its entirety to, did not have an ethos of social responsibility on the safe and humane transport of those who have been a cash cow for them, when politicians drown each other out in calling for an end to the hotel-like treatment of prison inmates?

I participated last year in a Close-Up interview with National’s prison spokesperson, Simon Power who was eager to prove his tough credentials on crime to the party hierarchy and the public. He slammed the new women’s prison for having under-floor heating. Never mind that there were the serious issues of drug rehabilitation, dealing with women scarred by a lifetime of violence towards them and sexual and drug abuse, (simple?) Simon wanted them to know the rigours of cold temperatures and cold showers.

Never mind that under-floor heating was the most economical of all types of heating and protected the health of all in the prisons – inmates, staff and visitors. Simon would make them suffer.

And Ron Mark who is usually among the leaders of the hang ‘em high brigade was heard on National radio recently bemoaning the fact that there are so many gang-members in prison. Huh? He advocates putting gang members in prison whether they have been charged with a crime or not. Prison is the solution for all crime and criminal types says Ron. And while we are at it - hasn’t he and New Zealand First given up on our children by agitating for the lowering of the age of incarceration to 10?
The Ombudsmen’s Report

The Ombudsmen’s Report on the death in custody of Liam Ashley while being transported by Chubb shows that the existing procedures for safe transport were not followed and that Corrections failed to follow up on obvious deficiencies that had long been known.

What to do? Well Damien is on the right track to get it out of the hands of a willing Chubb and put it back under the public service. But once there a new CEO will have to ensure that his department gets it right not just in regard to transportation of inmates but across the whole department. For Ombudsman John Belgrave found that it wasn’t just in transport that the demand of politicians to end the luxury hotel status for prisoners was being taken seriously. Negligence is the order of the day across the department:

Overall the lack of national standard procedures in a variety of areas led us to conclude that the head office of the public prison service division of the department, known as the national office, is out of touch with what actually happens at the front line.

So what do Damien, and his colleagues have to do if they are to actually contribute to public safety and have Corrections do the job that our society requires ? Damien has to get out of the office and onto the front line with his officials. And while , on an urgent basis, implementing the provisions for inmate transport safety set out by the Ombudsman he has to connect the debate on crime and prisons to science and common sense.

Once he is on the front line he will see that our prisons have become substitutes for more constructive policies. He will discover that our prisons are becoming, in the words of criminologist Elliot Currie, our employment policy, our drug policy, our mental health policy in the vacuum left by the absence of more constructive policy.

Damien will need to read the New Zealand reports. The Roper Report on prisons and the 2001 Report About Time should be able to be recovered by officials from a back cupboard. After he has read the reports it will be clear to him that he does not have to take well-publicised overseas trips to find out what should be done Instead he will need to throw his weight around in cabinet to get his mates to put serious money and resources into effective and intensive programmes for early intervention, home visiting, vulnerable teenagers, education and training programmes, mental health treatment and drug rehabilitation.

Being in a socialist party it should not be difficult to explain the connection between inequality, poverty and crime. In countries where prosperity is spread around through wealth redistribution there is a relatively low level of crime.

The right wing parties won’t want to hear this as they view crime as individual moral failing and don’t want the causes of crime to be linked to social and economic inequality. Fundamentally their policies of lower taxes and less public spending will lead to more inmate deaths in privatised prison services where making a dollar is more important than spending it on effective policies that reduce prison numbers and crime in general.

It is about time that politicians took the issue of public safety seriously not by talking about what is soft or hard in relation to crime but what works.

ENDS

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