Criminologist Dr Emmy Rākete says Paremoremo Prison’s expansion as one of 149 projects under the controversial fast-track bill is a disgrace.
The prison, on Auckland’s North shore, is the country’s only specialist maximum-security prison and will see a near double capacity increase from 681 to 1200 people.
Rākete, People Against Prisons Aotearoa spokesperson, says the plan is unnecessary and unrealistic.
“Auckland Prison is already so overcrowded and understaffed that prison management is unable to cope,” Rākete says.
“Turning Paremoremo into a mega-prison will inevitably result in abuse, violence, and riots.”
Paremoremo Prison includes the Prisoners of Extreme Risk Unit about which the Office of the Inspectorate recently released the first inspection report.
It found the conditions of ‘isolation and hopelessness’ PERU prisoners were subject to raised concerns among mental health clinicians. The report said conditions were “overly and unnecessarily” restrictive, with one prisoner kept in solitary confinement for almost three years.
Rākete says, as a 600-person prison, Paremoremo is “sloppily run, dangerous and violent” but, as a megaprison, it could be a “pit as dangerous to the staff as to the people inside it”.
She says the prison system is well below its capacity.
“At the same time as the ‘coalition of cuts’ is defunding hospitals to give tax cuts to landlords, it is ramming billions into prison expansion,” Rākete says.
“Who will these new prisons be built for? The government knows austerity creates violence and crime, and is choosing austerity anyway. The rich will get richer and the poor will get prisons.”
Another mega-prison
In May, the coalition government announced $1.9b would go towards ‘law and order’, which is one of their top three priorities.
Funding for pay increases for Corrections staff, 680 new frontline workers and a 810-bed extension at Waikeria prison were included in its first budget.
The budget also proposed $78 million for rehabilitation but Rākete says it only amounts to 4% of the near $2 billion budget.
“You can’t rehabilitate people while you’re ripping them away from their families and imprisoning people. Spend two billion dollars on housing for the poor and we’ll believe this government is serious about breaking the cycle,” she says.
“The solution is not bigger prisons but a smaller imprisoned population. We have to invest in transitional housing, in-community rehabilitation, benefits, housing, and jobs - these are what actually make society safer.”
Three deaths in a year at Mt Eden Prison
At Mt Eden prison recently there were two deaths within a week, the first being the murder of Andrew Chan Chui, and the second an unsuspicious death last Thursday.
Rākete says Chan Chui, whose cellmate has been charged with his murder, is “another victim of double bunking” and she suspects prisoner management policies contributed to Chan Chui’s death.
“By holding two people in cells only designed for one, Corrections subjects incarcerated people to the risk of violence. Andrew is just the latest victim of double bunking, and there will be more,” she said.
Rākete says international evidence has shown double-bunking is associated with an increase in rapes and homicides.
Rākete cites two local cases. William Katipa allegedly serially sexually assaulted those he double-bunked with for years. Stephen Gotty was convicted for a rape he committed while double-bunked in Mt Eden Prson in 2017.
She says Mount Eden Prison management have seen violence double since the double-bunking began and they need to accept their share in the blame for Chan Chui’s death.
“Mount Eden Prison is a death trap,” Rākete says. “I am extremely concerned that prison management either can’t or won’t ensure the safety of the people they’re locking up.”
