[Press release:]

Calls for end to solitary confinement

Racial Equity Aotearoa condemns the racist and transphobic treatment of a Māori transwoman who is currently held in solitary confinement.

Earlier this week, prison abolitionist group, No Pride in Prisons took action in Kirikiriroa, Tāmaki Makaurau, Ōtepoti and Te Whanganui-a-Tara to demand her immediate release.

“We stand in solidarity with No Pride in Prisons and support their demand for an immediate end to solitary confinement", says REA spokesperson Aaryn Niuapu.

"It is unacceptable that transwomen are being placed in men’s prisons and placed in isolation as a form of ‘protection’ from threats of physical and sexual assault.”

Solitary confinement is recognised as a form of torture. She is being kept in what Corrections called “protective segregation”, “for her own safety” after experiencing assaults from other prisoners. She has communicated to her advocates that she had been contemplating suicide.

Prisons in Aotearoa are a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The Pākehā Settler State has no legitimacy to govern, incarcerate and torture Māori communities. The mass incarceration of Māori is a form of institutional racism and ongoing colonialism by the Settler State.

It's time for the government to take up the kaupapa of 'decarceration', championed by Māori constitutional lawyer Moana Jackson. This kaupapa will only make sense once the Colonial government comes to terms with the necessity of decolonization.

Racial Equity Aotearoa calls for:

1. Corrections to release her from isolation immediately and to provide her with the mental health support and care she needs.

2. Honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi and recognising Tāngata Whenua rights to Indigenous methods of dealing with harm in the community without prisons.

3. Dismantling of institutional racism and transphobia.

4. For the (in)Justice System to start the process of decarceration in Aotearoa New Zealand.

[Ends]

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