Corrections Responsible for High Rates of Suicide in New Zealand Prisons

No Pride in Prisons is condemning the Department of Corrections following another ‘non-accidental’ death at Mount Eden Prison. Corrections announced that a prisoner died last Monday due to an ‘apparent suicide’.

“There is a crisis in New Zealand prisons. Overcrowding, systemic violence and inadequate access to medical care, including mental health services, all make New Zealand prisons an unbearable place to live,” says No Pride in Prisons spokesperson Ti Lamusse.

Lamusse, a Masters student in Sociology at the University of Auckland, is currently researching queer and transgender people’s experiences of incarceration.

Lamusse says, “From the information that Corrections has provided me, I have found that prisoners commit suicide at a rate of approximately 72 per 100,000, compared with a rate of 12-13 per 100,000 in New Zealand broadly.”

“This means that incarcerated people on average commit suicide at a rate six times higher than the general population.”

No Pride in Prisons says that the Department of Corrections, and the New Zealand criminal justice system more generally, have to take part of the blame for this problem.

“Suicide is a societal problem and when incarcerated people are attempting suicide at a rate that far exceeds that of the free population, we have to ask why.”

“Corrections is fostering a prison environment that makes suicide seem like the only option for some people. Prisons are not safe. People are terrified to leave their cells. Staff treat incarcerated people like human cargo that just needs to be managed.”

No Pride in Prisons says that the Department of Corrections’ failure to provide adequate mental health care for incarcerated people is putting them at even greater risk.

“Corrections is responsible for the health and well-being of all incarcerated people. It is failing miserably.”

Labour MP, Kelvin Davis, said the prisoner who died on Monday was being held in solitary confinement. “As we have learned recently, the Department of Corrections is willing to hold prisoners in their cells for up to twenty three hours a day.

“By all measures, deprivation of human contact for extended periods of time amounts to torture. Various studies have also found that solitary confinement vastly increases the risk of suicide for incarcerated people.”

“Although we do not know the exact details of this prisoner’s experience, it is understandable that somebody who is being tortured by the Department of Corrections would take their life.”

“New Zealand prisons have become a place where we send our most vulnerable and mentally unwell people. They are also a place where the conditions of life are so unbearable that it is impossible for some to live.”

“New Zealand has to seriously reconsider whether prisons are the best way to solve issues of mental illness and social harm.”

“Prisons are dangerous for incarcerated people. We have to soberly consider if it is worthwhile to put people in extreme danger in prisons, when incarceration does nothing but perpetuate social victimisation.”

No Pride in Prisons is demanding that the Department of Corrections takes responsibility for every unnatural death in its custody.

“Taking responsibility means doing everything you can to stop it from happening again. This means ending solitary confinement, improving medical care, and ultimately decarceration.”

“Until we, as a society, realise that prisons are not the solution, we will continue to needlessly subject people to harm and to sustain injustice.”

ENDS

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