Minister of Corrections Kelvin Davis has issued a directive to senior Corrections staff in the aftermath of the Mihi Bassett torture case. People Against Prisons Aotearoa says the Minister is repeating the same promises he made to Māori in 2019, and subsequently broke.

“Kelvin Davis is making promises to Māori that he knows the Crown won’t be able to keep,” says People Against Prisons Aotearoa spokesperson Emilie Rākete. “Kelvin says he will ask Corrections to stop being racist and stop torturing prisoners. If this could possibly work, it would have worked when he said the exact same thing in 2019, with his miserably failed Hokai Rangi plan.”

“The problem is not that Kelvin hasn’t asked Corrections to stop being racist, the problem is that Corrections must be racist. There is no way to remove Māori from our communities, lock us in double-bunked cells, and hold us in solitary confinement that is not racist.”

“Kelvin is repeating himself, and expecting us to believe we didn’t notice he failed us last time. He will fail us again. This letter is worth less than the paper it was printed on.”

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