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10 March
06
Prisons,
Porn and P
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Like
most New Zealanders I was appalled last weekend to read that
the killer of Lillybing had enjoyed a life of P and porn in
prison. In a media
interview she explained that prison “is not as hard as
people make out”.
Rachel
Namana, sentenced to six years in jail in 2001 for the
manslaughter of the 23 months old toddler, said she smoked
pure methamphetamine for the first time in jail.
She had access to other drugs as well and frequently
downloaded porn on her cellphone.
She
admitted that she was not rehabilitated while in jail, is now
heavily influenced by gang members and has no desire to make
contact with her five children who are in CYFS care. She has
no job, goes out partying most nights with other ex inmates,
and every week deposits money into the accounts of associates
in prison so they can buy supplies inside.
She is not confident of keeping out of jail.
This
story is a real indictment of our criminal justice system. A
serious violent criminal, having served her time in prison,
feels that she was not punished and nor was she rehabilitated.
New
Zealand has over 7,000 people in prison, with new figures
showing that by the year 2010 the number will rise to over
9,000, giving us the second highest rate of imprisonment in
the Western world. Yet
with a recidivism rate of around 75 to 80 percent and the
Corrections Department admitting that many of their
rehabilitation programmes do not work, surely it is time to
question whether the approach we are using is the right one.
A
few years ago I remember reading about a controversial
American Sheriff who had developed a novel approach to the
running of his County jails. I decided to contact Sheriff Joe
Arpaio of Maricopa County Arizona, to find out exactly what he
was doing and this morning I spoke with him.
Sheriff
Arpaio is the NZCPD guest commentator this week.
Known as
"America's Toughest Sheriff," his
get-tough-on-criminals approach has made him wildly successful
over the years as he has put inmates in tents and pink
underwear, sent them to work on chain gangs and punished them
with bread-and-water diets. You can read more detail
about what the Sheriff does and why he does it on the website
>>>.
The
Sheriff's no nonsense approach is the antithesis of the
politically correct mumbo jumbo that we have come to expect
from officials these days. It strikes a chord.
He
believes that just as children are punished by taking away
their privileges, that same philosophy should be used in the
running of jails whereby inmates should be held fully
accountable for their actions. Further, he passionately
believes that life in jail should not be better than life on
the outside, and nor should head counts and over-crowding
determine when an inmate is released from jail.
Here
is New Zealand that is a major issue, with many offenders who
should really be in jail given home detention to avoid
overcrowding and save money. Not only that, but the Minister
of Corrections is now signalling that because of the
overcrowding problem alternative to prison may need to be
found for up to 30 percent of sentenced offenders!
In fact, it was the
overcrowding in the jail system and a lack of funding to build
new jails, that prompted Sheriff Arpaio to look at alternative
accommodation when he was first elected to the Sheriff'’s
Office in 1992. He
figured that if American troops in Desert Storm could live in
tents then surely they would be good enough for sentenced
inmates. Using
surplus military property he constructed a tent city, with
each tent having permanent foundations, electricity, and
plumbing.
These days his tent city
houses some 2,000 sentenced inmates who sentences are less
than 12 months. Inmates who are on remand are housed in proper
County jails, and inmates with sentences longer than twelve
months are sent off to Federal prisons.
The Sheriff told me this
morning that the cost of running these tent city jails –
which, incidentally, have staffing levels of one detention
officer to around 250 inmates and the cheapest meals of any
large jail in the country - is just a few hundred thousand
dollars a year. That compares to the tens of millions of
dollars it takes to run a standard jail.
Over the years, I have visited
prisons up and down the country, including the privately run
prison that use to operate in Auckland. I believe there are
five things we could do to alleviate New Zealand’s prison
overcrowding crisis.
Firstly, prisoners with major
psychiatric problems – around 10 percent of the prison
population - should not be an ordinary jails, but in special
forensic prisons where they can get access to proper
medication and treatment.
Secondly, low security inmates
- approximately 50 to 60 percent of the prison population - do
not need to be housed in expensive prisons, but could serve
their sentences in surplus government facilities converted to
provide cheap accommodation, such as the old Air Force
barracks.
Thirdly, with the majority of
inmates moved out of prisons into alternative accommodation
there would be more than enough prison beds for the 30 percent
of prisoners who are serious violent criminals. With plenty of
room at their disposal, prison officials could ensure that
inmates are kept segregated and away from those who would be a
bad influence. They could also better provide intensive
rehabilitation.
It is also important however,
that the jails are toughened up: I recall discussing the plans
for the new Northland prison – which is more like a country
club than a jail - with a group of locals only to have one old
lady say that she was pleased that it looked so comfy because
“it would be a really nice place for her grand children to
grow up in!”
Fourthly prisons should focus
on readying inmates for the workforce: everyone should be
required to work for eight hours a day. That programme should
vary from prisoner to prisoner, with some spending their whole
week in education and training, while others are in specialist
programmes like drug rehab, and the rest in work. Night
classes should be freely available to all prisoners in the
evening.
Finally, given that criminals
are not born, but raised, every effort should go into
encouraging parents to provide a stable loving home for their
children, where they encourage education and provide good
working role models. If a child becomes too difficult for
the parents to handle, parenting help should be readily
available, but if the young person really goes off the rails,
a military training programme for young offenders might just
be the thing that saves them... and us.
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