Alexander Marc: Corrections Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Alexander Marc: Corrections Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:617;Page:13151] 
MARC ALEXANDER (United Future) 
: 
 I hope I will be given more than one call owing to the fact that I was not given the courtesy of a call when we dealt with Part 3. Prior to starting I want to pay tribute to the comedy stint of Matt Robson as a former Minister of Corrections. That material is ripe for New Zealand On Air funding as a satirical series but I do not think the people of this country would find it very funny and I do not think the victims of this country would find it very funny at all. 
If we look at the kind of system this Minister intends to support to the exclusion of any possible alternative—an alternative that is beneficial to the correctional system—we see that it requires an in-depth look at “goon squad” activities which happened in a State-managed correctional facility rather than in the private one. The interesting thing is that most of the leaders of the “goon squad” not only remain at work but have been promoted. The man who gave blanket approval for the emergency response unit to act in that way Paul Rushton is now a member of the committee looking at prisons professional ethics and organisational culture. 
That is what this Minister is trying to defend with the complicity of the Greens who have spent plenty of time railing against this very thing. There was the rape of an inmate at Hawke’s Bay Regional Prison while the inmates were drunk and out on a work party and the pitchfork killing of an inmate in Rimutaka Prison while working in its faith unit. Then there was the judgment of the behaviour management regime. As a result of Justice Ron Young’s decision in the Wellington High Court Taunoa and three other behaviour management regime inmates can now ask for damages along with other prisoners held unlawfully for a few weeks more than supposedly required. That is something that happens under the State management of prisons. 
What about the assault at Paremoremo when prisoner TokoManahi was restrained by a number of guards including senior officers and unit managers such as Murray Sweet and Trevor Tohill? I want to quote the following at some length: “Four inmates gave evidence on Mr Sweet kicking Manahi. One prison officer even acknowledged the corrections officer kicked the inmate while he was restrained. Mr Sweet himself in his own review with RetiPearse and David Pomeroy on November 13th last year acknowledges kicking Manahi.” I want to know what disciplinary action was taken against Mr Sweet given that Manahi was restrained at the time he was kicked. There was none. I do not see the Minister in the chair Paul Swain jumping to the defence of his own department. 
There were some shocked reactions from different sections of the public that want to maintain the present privately managed prison. A letter sent to the Hon Paul Swain from Te WarenaTaua chair of Iwi Whanui o Tamaki-makau-rau who raised serious concerns over the Department of Corrections’ controversial behaviour modification programme states that nine inmates launched legal action against the Crown and the Department of Corrections claiming that they had been subjected to psychological torture unlawful solitary confinement and numerous other breaches. 
We are not talking about prisons in Iraq. It is a Department of Corrections facility. The Minister runs that department yet he wants to close down the only other alternative—one that has the highest international recognition and standards. Why? Because of a belief in an ideological policy he supported before he had the chance to find out empirically how good privately managed prisons could be. Anybody who is not willing to change an opinion given fresh evidence ought to have his or her head examined. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. 
I continue to quote the letter: “Now is not the time to reward the department with a monopoly on prison management or to take away the competition which is forcing the department to finally start lifting its game. When we get rid of the privately-managed prison we will get rid of the whole impetus for the Department of Corrections to start seeing beyond its prehistoric methods.”