Prebble Richard: Corrections Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Procedure 
Prebble Richard: Corrections Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:617;Page:13034] 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I rise to speak to Part 3 and in particular clause 194 which makes it illegal for the Crown to extend the term of a private contract to run a prison. What the Hon Tony Ryall said about the financial cost is true in that the private prison is cheaper. However I say this to the Committee and to the Greens before they think about voting for this legislation: we know that private prisons are more efficient. We also know a terrible thing about prisons and that is that some people who go to prison become suicidal. We know that many people sent to prison are mentally unstable. We also know that the public service was very much opposed to this private prison and so when it first started they actually sent to the private prison people they knew from experience were the most likely to mutilate themselves or commit suicide. To the astonishment even of those who supported private prisons no such person has committed suicide. 
I have been told by prison officers that when this private prison is closed—and I would like the Greens to think about this—it will mean that some prisoners will die. The Greens are voting for ideological reasons and the member might think that is uncomfortable. 
Lianne Dalziel 
: It’s a remand prison. 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE 
: The member might say that. What if I sent her the name of every prisoner who committed suicide following the passage of this bill and asked her what her ideology was worth? That is the reality and we ought to debate it properly. We are saying that it does not matter if unstable people commit suicide in prison provided that the prison officers all work for the Public Service Association. I just say that the Labour Party I used to belong to did not think that sort of nonsense. It was prepared to think past ideology and look at the practical reality. 
I just wonder what is going on in the Minister’s mind the mind of the Labour caucus and the Green Party when they know that every word I am saying is correct. That representation has been made not just by prisoners’ families not just by people who visited or by the private prison. I know that it is now conceded by senior managers of State prisons who now realise that when this bill and this clause go through those prisoners that the State system made a muck of handling will come back into the State system. Many of those prisoners will also be Maori—not all but many will be. When we talk about suicides and say how shocking it is in Australian jails we need to know that they also occur in New Zealand jails. However this is the first time I have seen a Parliament prepared to put ideology higher than people’s lives. I say to members opposite that even if it costs more to run private prisons but they were doing a better job I would be in favour of a private prison system. 
I am in favour of punishment but we do not send young men to jail to commit suicide or perhaps we do. Perhaps that is what this Minister meant when he said he was tough. I say to the Minister that he has a responsibility. When he said that the Crown ought to be in charge of jails he ought to be running a professional humane jail system. He says he is doing that but what is the reality? We all know that when we pass this part we are sentencing some of our fellow New Zealanders to die and I say that is disgraceful. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I call the honourable member Brian Connell.