Private prisons not in the interests of Maori

CTU Vice President Maori Sharon Clair has today called on the Maori Party to oppose any move to privatise the management of New Zealand prisons by private business interests.

“Maori are overrepresented in the prison population and the Maori Party should focus its efforts on reversing that, rather than advocating that the State, having imprisoned our people, then delegate responsibility for looking after them,” Sharon Clair said.

 “The Maori Party are suggesting that privatisation will enable Maori to participate in private prison management while at the same time they are opposing laws like the ‘three strikes you’re out’ proposal from the Act party. They must be able to see the contradiction in this. Private prison owners have no interest except the continued imprisonment of people. Maori money should not be used in this type of industry against its own people’s interests. As we know from the US experience, private management of prisons not only leads to extremely harsh prison environments with little investment in rehabilitation, but also to private organisations influencing policy and legislation to imprison more people for longer.”

“This Government policy is part of the general push by National to privatise the public service. The CTU and the majority of the public are completely opposed to this. The Maori Party will not be able to oppose other privatisations if it continues to support the privatisation of prisons. It needs to come clean on what its general position on privatisation is. We have seen it wobble on ACC and now prisons. Maori voters will be concerned that these issues are not being discussed with them and that the Maori Party seem to be co-operating with the Government’s privatisation agenda.”

“It appears that the Maori party support for privatisation is more opportunistic than well thought through and lacks vision about how to reduce Maori incarceration rates.”