TV3’s interview with prisoner Arthur Taylor once again highlights a worrying lack of transparency around our prison system, which the National Government has refused to open up to proper independent scrutiny, the Green Party said today. In an interview with TV3’s The Nation, prisoner Arthur Taylor claimed that many New Zealand prisons are still controlled by gangs, and that contraband like cellphones and cigarettes are regularly being smuggled in. “These are serious allegations, but without independent oversight New Zealanders are...

Judith Collins’ abuse of information about prisoners in order to attack a Labour MP marks a dangerous return to her dirty politics-style way of doing Government business, the Green Party said today.   Corrections Minister Judith Collins went on the attack today, accusing a Labour Party MP of visiting notorious prisoner Arthur Taylor, and refusing to confirm how she knew about the supposed visits.   “Judith Collins’ dirty politics-style of running her ministries is designed to intimidate opposition MPs and others...

A blowout in prison population numbers, that appears to have caught the National Government off guard, is the latest evidence of the Government’s failure to manage the Prison Service, the Green Party said today.

The Green Party is urging the new Minister of Corrections to pick up its Bill on an  independent prisons inspectorate after the idea was backed by previous Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga.

The Serco contract should be immediately cancelled rather than merely just not being renewed, the Green Party says.

Judith Collins must clean up the Serco mess she started almost five years ago to the day if reports of her re-appointment as Corrections Minister are confirmed, the Green Party says.

Corrections Minister Sam Lotu-liga cannot continue in the role after he failed to answer basic questions about teens in prison today and dismissed a senior Corrections officer’s statements about prison understaffing as “her opinion”, the Green Party says.

The Green Party is demanding that Corrections Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga stop the lockdown of teenagers for 23 hours a day in Mt Eden Prison and clarify what Corrections has done about the practice since first alerted to it more than a year ago. “The latest Ombudsman’s inspection shows young people on remand were being locked in their cells 23 hours a day at Mt Eden – that is akin to torture,” said Green Party Corrections spokesperson David Clendon. ““It is...

The Green Party is calling on Police Minister Michael Woodhouse to ensure Police scrap controversial contracts that place onerous restrictions on academic researchers’ access to Police data. The Green Party’s call comes following revelations that University of Canterbury sociologist Dr Jarrod Gilbert has been blacklisted from accessing police data and that other academic researchers have been required to sign contracts that give Police the ability to censor research findings. “This is an absolute outrage – it is as though Police...

The Green Party will be abstaining on the Returning Offenders (Management and Information) Bill.