The Green Party will return all prisons to state control because a person’s liberty should not be
The Green Party will return all prisons to state control because a person’s liberty should not be monetised.
Fresh allegations have been made against our failing private prison system about beatings and lockdowns at Wiri Prison which is run by SERCO. This comes after the Department of Corrections had to take over Mt Eden Correctional Facility after serious reports of failures by SERCO emerged.
“National’s disastrous experiment with private prisons has shown that we should never make our citizens; detention a for-profit industry,” said Green Party corrections spokesperson David Clendon.
“The Green Party will return all prisons to state control because no one should make a buck off locking someone up.
“How can you have a functional prison when the privatisation model is set up to incentivise concealment of failures and dodging responsibility?
“The latest allegations against SERCO show that private prisons were always a bad idea and will continue to be a bad idea.
“The contract with SERCO will have to inevitably end, given the long list of failures by the operator.
“National could have already got out of this contract, at no cost of the taxpayer, by issuing a Final Warning, or signalled they will be ending the contract by activating the Break Clause. You really have to wonder why they have not done neither.
“Private prisons are ethically abhorrent and now the evidence shows they are also completely dysfunctional as well.
“National just needs to admit they have failed in trying to privatise the prison system,” said Mr Clendon.
