When Will Swain Regain Control Of Prisons?

Monday 27 Sep 2004

Stephen Franks - Press Releases - Crime & Justice

It's obvious that Corrections Minister Paul Swain is completely out of the loop on the prison overcrowding crisis - in fact, it's hard to see that he's in charge of anything to do with prisons at all, ACT New Zealand Corrections Spokesman Stephen Franks said today.

"Plainly the prison union decides whether there will be `double bunking'.

"It has been obvious for years that the gangs control the discipline, and even whether drug law is enforced in prisons.

"I suppose that leaves the Minister ensuring there are enough rations for three good meals a day.

"Why should we be breathlessly waiting to see how much extra per shift the union will get for deigning to agree to the Government's plea for more prisoners per cell.

"Mr Swain showed he was a patsy for the union earlier this year when he abolished the prospect of private prison management at Auckland Central Remand Prison.

"When the judges start refusing to punish because the union won't accept more prisoners, the cost of having a government - which cannot govern - will be measured in additional crime victims," Mr Franks said.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>