Simon Power MP National Party Justice & Corrections
Spokesman
7 December 2006
More questions for Corrections
Minister
Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor should be
fronting to answer questions over another serious incident
involving prisoners being transported in a prison van, says
National's Justice & Corrections spokesman, Simon Power.
He is commenting after two prisoners were found
unconscious when their van arrived at Rimutaka Prison after
guards ignored their calls for help.
"We are told they
started beating on their cage when the van was still in
Wellington but the guards ignored them and continued to
Upper Hutt, which is 30 minutes' drive away.
"Corrections'
own procedure is that at any sign of trouble the guards
should drive to the nearest secure area, such as a police
station, which in this case would have been Wellington or
Lower Hutt, only 15 minutes away.
"The public needs to
know what went wrong here. Was there a problem with the van?
And why was procedure not followed?
"Damien O'Connor
should be answering these questions. He has failed to front
on the delay in the Ashley report - is he still the
Minister?
"This incident might have been avoided had
Corrections not decided - the day before Liam Ashley died -
to abandon a proposed upgrade of security and surveillance
in vans.
"Damien O'Connor also needs to say if he will be
reviewing that call, which relegated prisoner safety behind
the millions of dollars spent on landscaping, flat-screen
TVs, and X-Boxes.
"To not do so could also open
Corrections up to further compensation claims from
prisoners."
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