Turia Tariana: General Debate 
Turia Tariana: General Debate 
[Volume:629;Page:1379] 
TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Civil rights leader and orator Dr Martin Luther King Jnr once said that life’s most urgent question is: “What are you doing for others?”. The answer to that question in the prisons of this country is depressing. The report of the Ombudsmen released last Christmas described the shameful shadow of neglect that hangs over our penal walls. The report described inefficiencies in the basics such as access to clothing dentists and books. It outlined a lack of employment and vocational programmes despite the fact that access to meaningful work or training is a key departmental goal to reducing reoffending. 
The report went further. It described substandard recreational facilities sloppy sentence-management plans inadequate procedures to record information and an overall inconsistency in terms of inmate management and policy. Perhaps the most damning find was the revelation that the Department of Corrections was painting a picture that differed greatly from reality. The report of the Ombudsmen stated that “while a casual reading of the Department’s published documents might suggest it is substantially meeting those ideals and intents for prisoners our conclusion is that this is not the case.” It is hardly a good news story unless of course members like the story of the emperor’s new clothes. 
Yesterday when I asked the Minister of Corrections when the report into the detention and treatment of prisoners would be taken seriously—particularly its urgent recommendations relating to conditions that breach international human rights standards—his response was that he had every confidence that we are meeting those standards right now. This is not a fairy tale.  
Bad Girls 
 is a TV programme not the curriculum for New Zealand jails. Budget blowouts poor accountancy practices prison break-outs emergency measures to accommodate extra inmates such as double-bunking and industrial disputes over safety all sound like a failed system to me and our jails are still bulging at the seams. 
In a report on prison and reoffending released today the Salvation Army has recommended a multiparty agreement to deal with the issues of crime and punishment in a non-partisan way. The report calls for some principled courageous leadership to turn prisons round. The Maori Party has heard this call and supports it with all its will. We must turn round this crisis before it is too late. 
The biggest flaw in the prison mentality is the proliferation of psychologists who would if we allowed diagnose children in utero as potential crims identify their criminogenic needs assess people for Maori culturally-related needs if they happen to be a Maori apply a dosage of bicultural therapy and finish off by applying the risk of reconviction “ROC” and the risk of imprisonment “ROI” tools which together form the ROC?ROI measure—kind of like the “jailhouse ROC ‘n’ ROI tools”. 
 We will not tolerate any more tinkering with a system that is clearly falling apart. We suggest three solutions. The first is to look elsewhere and we hope that on his recent trip to Finland the Minister picked up on some key strategies for success. The second is to look here at some of the excellent ideas just waiting to be read. The ombudsman’s Christmas reading the Roper report and Moana Jackson’s  
He Whaipainga Hou: A New Perspective 
 the Salvation Army’s report would be a pretty good start. Finally the best source of investment for sustainable solutions is to look to our whanau to stop the politicking and to ask our families for help—and that includes discussions with the families of the victims and the families of the offenders. 
Five months ago the Waitangi Tribunal said that Maori communities have significant interests in the goal of reducing Maori offending and the use of Maori culture to help achieve that goal. Is the Minister prepared to speak to Maori communities or does such an approach fall into the “ethnic targeting no-go zone” promoted by this Government? How about investing in them—not with bricks and mortar not with diagnostic codes and treatment plans but with real tangible resources—to help families to help themselves? All it takes is the political world to make the change.