Privately Managed Prisons
February 17th, 2009 at 7:45 am by David FarrarNational is delivering on its promise to allow the private sector to compete against the Corrections Department, for the running of new prisons.
The Maori Party are very supportive, saying Maori interests may put together a bid.
The previous privately managed prison, had a Maori General Manager and local Iwi were full of praise for how inclusive the prison management was, compared to other prisons.
Labour’s law and order spokesman Clayton Cosgrove said running prisons was core government business and National’s move was based on “pure ideology”.
No the ideology was Labour that changed the law to force the previous private manager out, despite the fact they had been a stunning success.
It is the role of the state to set policy and standards for prisons. Absolutely. But the state does not have to deliver every service it is responsible for. In fact often it is better they do not. Governments tend to be quite good at policy. But not so good at actually running things.
Related posts:
- Debate on Privately Managed Prisons
- Lots of privately run prisons
- Nandor on private prisons
- Solomon on Private Prisons
February 17th, 2009 at 7:58 am
“Maori interests may put together a bid” hmmm – could we call that prison a reservation?
Vote:February 17th, 2009 at 8:16 am
Labour demonstrating its irrelevance again.
Vote:February 17th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Labour banned private prisons. The Catholic church banned condoms. See the similarities?
Labour behave like a religion. Regardless of the benefits of private prisons, labours just does not like them. It shows what a bunch of wallies are leading labour.
Labour would rather spend an extra billion dollars a year running prisons, than allow a private organisation to butt in. Talk about spiteful…
Vote:February 17th, 2009 at 8:35 am
And the Greens are against an increase in Prison capacity because it will means more Maori will be incarcerated
Simple really, do not commit the crime in the first place.
Duh!
Vote:February 17th, 2009 at 8:38 am
Its win win as far as I can see.
A: Cheaper!
Vote:B: A private partnership really couldnt be any worse than the farce that is corrections!
February 17th, 2009 at 8:38 am
Plenty of room for a huge prison population living in tents in the McKenzie basin. Will the Human Rights Review Tribunal still pay homicidal maniacs huge compensation if the prisoner gets hurt feelings in a minus ten mid winter frost? Hopefully mother nature will thin them out.
Vote:February 17th, 2009 at 9:17 am
is this another Tough on Crime/ Soft on PB thread?
ok, im almost over it…
Vote:February 17th, 2009 at 9:41 am
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Well, the prison system IS broke so lets have a go at fixing it.
And to argue that the running of prisons is core government business demonstrates how much Labour is mired in ideological burp land.
Vote:February 17th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Prison would suit so many of the leading lights in the previous administration.
Vote:February 17th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Did you see the idiot comment made by the Labour party in relation to these private prisons?
“Labour believes that it is the role of the public sector to deprive people of their liberty and not the role of the private sector”
I think they meant to say that it is LABOURS role to deprive people of their liberty, although they are on the right track about our liberty.
This is good policy by National and ACT. And it saves us money, $10,000 per cell/prisoner p/a. Labour don’t think of this as they like to piss our money away at every opportunity. Their ideology shoulfd be renamed to something that reflects their money wasting ways.
Vote:February 17th, 2009 at 11:55 am
When I was living in Auckland we ran a number of church services on a Sunday at the prison chapel of the Auckland remand prison. This was the privately run prison next to Mt Eden prison. I was impressed by the diligence of the staff and their commitment to standards. The prison staff were well groomed, very polite and appeared to take a pride in their work.
The chapel services were well received by the prisoners — a mixed group of Maori, Pacific Island and pakeha prisoners.
So my experience, as a visitor, of the privately run prison was very positive. If the private sector can run prisons well, and my experience on this particular occasion was that they certainly can, then I think National’s policy on this particular issue is very good and should be commended.
Vote:February 17th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Good on the Nats for this.
And of course, if prisons run better with the state providing nothing but the funding (and they do – all round the world), why wouldn’t schools and hospitals?
Hmm?
Vote:February 17th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
The answer is that would of course. Along with power stations, roads, airlines, superannuation, and all those services that people just might pay for if they had either the money or the choice.
One could point out that the internet has done just fine until now BUT legislation is now in place to interfere with that.
Vote:Something else next.
February 17th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
clintheine notes:
Idiot indeed as it fails to understand that people are deprived of their liberty by a judge and sometimes a jury. And last time I checked there were no plans to introduce “McJustice” (though I supect that for some, the idea of driving a bus full of arrested people past a window for a quick sentence sans trial would probably find favour. Then we could have the SST at another window asking “Can we upsize that?”).
Who looks after prisoners once they’ve been deprived of their liberty by what is very much a public process isn’t a matter for ideology, it’s a matter for practicality.
There’s been a good debate on this over at The Standard for a few days now, so rather than repeat the positive reports on private prison I’ve posted there which shows they can both save millions of dollars and be better run, I’ll quote from the report of the WA Inspector of Custodial Services, an independent assessor of state and private correctional facilities:
Of course for every Serco (who runs the private prison in WA) there’s a Wackenhutt. But it’s simply a matter of choosing the right provider, setting the right benchmarks, and holding them to account.
Vote:February 17th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
I’d love to see a private prison run by “Maori Interests” that successfully reduced recidivism rates, it would be just the most glorious knee in the balls of all those “I can’t see why race should be an issue” types
Vote:February 17th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
There are 1,000 places I can start on this topic, but this is where I will start if Maori run the prisons; it’ll be an ORGY.
How many Maori female wardens have been caught fraternising with Maori prisoners? And I’m not talking ciggies and coffee. The public is never going to know whats going on behind closed cells. Maori warders will also turn a blind eye to conjugal visits.
If you think inmates have it too soft now – which I don’t really believe – you’ll be wondering why inmates won’t be turning up to parole hearings. Prisons that are run by the Mob now will have those boys in administration and Mob presidents telling Prison execs how it’s all going to go down from now on.
Maori gang members, crims and druggies will be using prison as therapy, recreation and downtime to detox. Plus to get away from family responsiblities like feeding kids. Esp if they missing their warder gf.
Party time!
Vote:March 3rd, 2009 at 9:04 am
An interesting article on one potential pitfall of Private Prisons http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13185306
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