Simon Power
National Party Law & Order Spokesman

29 October 2006

Prisons buy Playstations, Xboxes for inmates

 
An admission by Corrections that some prisons have bought Playstations and Xboxes out of operational funding is unbelievable, says National’s Law & Order spokesman, Simon Power.

 
“I can see it now: prisoners come in from a day at the beach, as happens in Hawke’s Bay from time to time, eat their steak and ice cream, warm their feet on the heated floor, plug their Playstations or Xboxes into the LCD TVs – kindly supplied by the Minister so they get the best definition – and play Grand Theft Auto.

 
“The next thing Corrections will be supplying them with is a surround sound six-speaker system with sub-woofers and all others sorts of bells and whistles.

 
“Quite frankly, this is unbelievable.
 
“This is a department that doesn’t have enough funds to establish a sufficient number of beds in drug and alcohol units and yet it can somehow find money to go out and buy eight Playstations and Xboxes.

 
“Minister Damien O’Connor should explain to taxpayers why precious funds are being spent on expensive toys that many law abiding New Zealanders can’t afford.

 
“And when he’s done that he should think seriously about resigning.
 
“This is the just the latest in a long line of incredibly bad decisions made by his department over the past year and it’s getting to the stage where taxpayers have had enough.”

 
Ends