There is no corruption in our prison system

Hahahahaha, remember when the Corrections chief executive Barry Matthews furiously attacked claims that corruption was widespread throughout the prisons system and even went so far as to suggest it was the nasty, nasty gang members who were threatening the poor little prison workers? I found it funny that we could give prison workers that level of ‘understanding’ but we would never give prisoners that level of understanding – as awful as it is for the poor little prison workers getting bullied by the nasty, nasty gang members, imagine how much worse it is for the actual other prisoners locked in those cells with those nasty, nasty gang members.

But that would take an imagination, something our usual friends on the right who bay for public lynchings don’t seem to have much of. As the over stretched prison system grinds to a halt under the weight of its own corruption from the sheer increased volume of people we now lock up (don’t we just love to lock people up without thinking through the knock on effects? God bless knee jerk talkback NZ), the public seem to be getting a wee bit ill with the whole thing, you know, all a bit ashamed of their previous years bloodlust, NZers are now realizing that the awful soul destroying prisons they want everyone to be thrown in actually destroy souls and make the prisoners put through it even more bent and out of shape. The problem is that we live in a country where even mentioning the fact that the prison system isn’t working is akin to hating the victims who have been hurt by the criminals, the debate has been conquered by the sensible sentencing knee jerkers, fuelled by a Corrections Department riddled with corruption because those working in the system know that the outside world doesn’t give a toss what happens inside prisons and fanned by conservative politicians like Simon Power who paints prison as an adult Disneyland.

We have to rethink the prison system and we have to eliminate the lynch mobs from having a say.

Jail chiefs ordered to stamp out corruption
Jail bosses have been told to do some "sniffing around" as signs emerge that corruption may not be unique to Rimutaka Prison. Corrections chief executive Barry Matthews said yesterday other prisons were being scrutinised for a Rimutaka-like culture, in which corruption had been allowed to fester. He is certain the inquiry into Rimutaka will snare further staff for corruption - two have already been suspended - and may even lead to a shake-up of the prison's management. Since the department admitted problems at the prison, it has faced allegations that corruption is widespread in the country's jails. Mr Matthews and Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor have rejected that and resisted starting further inquiries. But Mr Matthews said yesterday there were signs of corruption at other prisons and he had asked managers to do some "sniffing around".