6 October 2016

Time to go, Serco – and all private prisons

The Chief Inspector of Corrections’ damning report into fight clubs at the Serco-run Mt Eden Correctional Facility definitively shows why the Government should give up on its private-prisons experiment, the Green Party said today.

While Serco no longer has the contract for Mt Eden Correctional Facility, they continue to run Wiri Prison. There has also been speculation that a new prison will need to be built shortly to deal with increased prisoner numbers.

“It’s time for Serco – and all private companies – to get out of our prisons, for good,” Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei said today.

“The bottom line is that Serco can’t be trusted to run our prisons, and the Government should immediately cut all ties to this negligent company.

“This report clearly shows that there has been a complete lack of oversight by Corrections and the Government over our prisons, and Serco has taken advantage of that.

“While the Government has accepted all 21 recommendations from the report, they also need to accept that nothing good is coming from having private companies involved in our prisons.

“Any new prisons that may be built in the future should not have any private company involvement – the Government must make that commitment to New Zealanders.

“The incentives to run a private prison are all wrong, and staff and inmates lives have been endangered unnecessarily by Serco.

“The Green Party supports the establishment of an independent prison inspectorate, which would ensure that reports of abuse, ill treatment, and fight clubs in our prisons would come to light much earlier, and hold those responsible to account,” said Mrs Turei.

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