People Against Prisons Aotearoa

MYTH: “EVERYONE IN PRISON HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY” 1,680 people in New Zealand prisons are on remand without conviction. This means that they are being held in prison before they have even been found guilty of anything. The recent “tough on crime”...

MYTH: “EVERYONE IN PRISON HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY”

1,680 people in New Zealand prisons are on remand without conviction. This means that they are being held in prison before they have even been found guilty of anything. The recent “tough on crime” reforms, such as the Bail Amendment Act 2013, have made this even worse. Between September 2013, when the bill was introduced, and September 2016, 77.49% of the increase in the prison population was due to a rise in the number of people being held on remand.

This increase in the prison population, now at 10,000, has created an overcrowding crisis. This crisis has been used to justify housing multiple people in tiny cells and denying them access to fresh air. Right now, it is being used to justify the building of a new facility at Waikeria Prison, which will house 1,500 more prisoners. Since this bill came into effect, the remand population alone has increased by more than 1,000 people!

The current overcrowding crisis is the result of a cruel piece of government policy. While the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act states that a person must be presumed innocent until proven guilty, 1,680 prisoners are being punished as though they had been found guilty anyway. The government now wants to justify degrading and torturing 1,500 more prisoners with this blatant breach of human rights! This is unacceptable. We demand the repealment of the Bail Amendment Act. http://ift.tt/2kmNt9C

MYTH: “PRISONS KEEP OUR COMMUNITIES SAFE” Prisons target specific communities much more than others. Those who are imprisoned are more likely to be poor, Māori, mentally unwell, and intellectually disabled. Māori experience discrimination at every...

MYTH: “PRISONS KEEP OUR COMMUNITIES SAFE”

Prisons target specific communities much more than others. Those who are imprisoned are more likely to be poor, Māori, mentally unwell, and intellectually disabled. Māori experience discrimination at every stage of the criminal “justice” system, and are more likely to be apprehended, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to prison. Māori make up only 15% of the total New Zealand population but over 50% of the prison population.

In what way are these communities being kept safe when parents, children, whānaunga, lovers, friends, caretakers and wage-earners are being locked in a cage away from their communities and tortured?

In fact, prisons actively endanger these communities. It has been found that those who leave prison often come out more violent than before. People who go to prison for non-violent offences are much more likely to commit violent offences when they leave. The culture of “victimisation and intimidation” within the prison forces many people to be violent in order to survive, teaching them to use violence to solve problems. When they leave the prison, that violence makes its way into our communities.

Former prisoners are also much more likely to be homeless and unemployed. As a result, people who have been in prison and their whānau are left with not only emotional and physical damage, but also an increased likelihood of being poor. Families that have or have had a member in prison face a vicious cycle of poor health, poor education, inadequate housing, and mental illness, which leads to more members of their community being imprisoned!

These families are caught in a cycle of misery that prisons help to reproduce over and over. Prisons not only fail to keep communities safe, but actively contribute to making communities unsafe by creating widespread fear, violence, homelessness and impoverishment. http://ift.tt/2ks01iB

Our Kaupapa

The purpose of No Pride in Prisons is to achieve prison abolition in Aotearoa. Everything we do is grounded in these fundamental principles:

Anti-Capitalism

Capitalism is the reason prisons exist in Aotearoa. No Pride in Prisons recognises that capitalism is an exploitative economic system that is responsible for immense inequality, poverty and suffering. At the same time that capitalism creates hunger, homelessness and imprisonment for those at the bottom, it creates incredible wealth for those at the top. Capitalism is a destructive force that kills our communities and the environment. We see the prison as a cog that keeps the capitalist machine running and believe we must do everything we can to stop the injustices of this economic system. Meaningful justice requires a world beyond capitalism.

Decolonisation

The need for new markets and ever-growing profits is part of the reason for the colonisation of Aotearoa. The introduction of capitalism to Aotearoa led to large scale theft of land and the destruction of Māori society. We recognise that this racist violence is foundational to capitalism and the prison system, and support Māori revolutionary struggle against it. No Pride in Prisons is committed to tino rangatiratanga and mana motuhake, as they are expressed in Te Tiriti o Waitangi and He Whakapūtanga. We believe that the prison stands in the way of decolonisation.

Prison Abolition

Prisons do not keep communities safe. Instead, they do serious harm to people in prison and make them more likely to harm others once they leave. While we support immediate reforms to police, courts and prisons which will reduce the damage they cause, we do not believe that justice can be achieved without their complete abolition. Prison abolition means a world without prisons and the violence they create. We believe that a revolution which will destroy prisons once and for all is the only way we will be able to create a just world.

Alternatives to Prisons

No Pride in Prisons is committed to alternatives to prisons that address harm and help people to change their behaviour. We recognise that no one is disposable and that everyone is capable of change. We believe in community-oriented solutions to harm that do not punish or dehumanise those who have done wrong. Justice for all those involved requires a commitment to changing harmful behaviour and repairing damaged relationships.

Equality

No Pride in Prisons is committed to building a world of equality between all people. We see prisons as an obstacle to this equality. Capitalism, racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression are made stronger by prisons. While we believe that prisons are always violent, we recognise that certain groups are more likely to experience further violence in prison than others. We are committed to ending the system that inflicts this violence. None of us are free until all of us are free.

Solidarity

Equality between all people is not a goal we can achieve on our own. Prison abolition, decolonisation and anti-capitalism in Aotearoa cannot be separated from international struggles. No Pride in Prisons stands in solidarity with the revolutionary efforts of others within Aotearoa and across the world. In unity, we are strong.

MYTH: “PRISONS HELP PEOPLE BECOME BETTER” In light of these inhumane conditions, we must ask: how does exposing people to fear, assault and isolation make them better people? Does this really teach people who have hurt others how to change? And if...

MYTH: “PRISONS HELP PEOPLE BECOME BETTER”

In light of these inhumane conditions, we must ask: how does exposing people to fear, assault and isolation make them better people? Does this really teach people who have hurt others how to change? And if Corrections believes the way to keep the most vulnerable prisoners safe is to lock them in solitary, effectively exposing them to yet another form of torture, are prisons not just punishing people for the sake of punishing them?

The statistics speak for themselves: half of people who leave prisons are back again within 5 years. When people do find rehabilitative services in prison useful, their personal development isn’t because of imprisonment but in spite of it. None of the services provided to prisoners require them to be imprisoned in order for them to be successful. People come out of prison scarred, not healed. http://ift.tt/2jSkT18

    • MYTH: “PRISONS TREAT PEOPLE TOO WELL” Recent Ombudsmen’s reports have revealed that prisoners are not even treated adequately, let alone well. They have found that the drinking water in some New Zealand prisons is discoloured, and that some prisoners...

    MYTH: “PRISONS TREAT PEOPLE TOO WELL”

    Recent Ombudsmen’s reports have revealed that prisoners are not even treated adequately, let alone well. They have found that the drinking water in some New Zealand prisons is discoloured, and that some prisoners are not even provided with drinking cups. Prisoners usually have their final meal of the day at 4pm, meaning that it is common for them to go 16 hours without any food.

    The Ombudsmen have also discovered that many prisoners are put in double-bunked cells far too small to accommodate two people; many do not get daily exercise or fresh air; many prisoners have to eat their meals next to an uncovered toilet; and many prisoners do not have regular access to clean clothing and sheets.

    The reports have uncovered that prison staff are able to watch some prisoners, even in their most intimate moments – getting dressed, using the toilet, and washing themselves. This is supposedly done in the name of safety, but instead makes prisoners feel degraded.

    Every prisoner is also required by law to be strip searched when they enter and leave the prison, as well as on many other occasions. During a strip search, officers have full authority to invade the prisoner’s body, including “lifting and raising” their “fat, genitalia, and breasts.” Despite how invasive this is, nothing is found in 99.59% of strip searches. Strip searches amount to senseless sexual assault and nothing else.

    Although strip searches are supposed to prevent harm, the Ombudsmen have nonetheless found an extremely high level of unreported prisoner-on-prisoner assaults. Many prisoners feel unsafe going about their everyday lives in prison. Referring to both other prisoners and prison staff, many prisoners describe the culture of the prison as one of “victimisation and intimidation.”

    Those who are most at risk of this violence are often placed in conditions akin to solitary confinement, where they may be stuck in their cell for up to 23 hours a day and cut off from contact with others.

    These conditions have been defined as a form of degrading treatment according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture. This reveals that not only are prisoners not treated “too well,” but that they are barely treated like people at all.

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    PRESS RELEASE: No Pride in Prisons Joins Resistance to State Housing Evictions

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    Members of prison abolitionist organisation No Pride in Prisons will be joining the Tāmaki Housing Group today to resist the eviction state housing tenant of Ioela “Niki” Rauti.

    Its spokesperson Emilie Rākete says, “No Pride in Prisons is proud to join our friends and whānau in protecting Niki’s right to a home. We will be joining dozens of others in occupying Niki’s land and refusing to move until she is guaranteed the right to stay in her home.”

    Rauti was served with a 90-day eviction notice, which expired on the 18th of January. The police has warned that she will be physically moved on today from 9:30am. “We intend to put our bodies on the line to stop this eviction,” says Rākete.

    No Pride in Prisons believes the eviction is unjust. “One of the most frustrating things about this whole process is that it never used to be like this. State housing tenants, including Niki, were told for decades that their houses were for life.”

    “The government introduced reviewable tenancies just so it could kick out state housing tenants and make some money from their eviction.”

    Rauti’s house is owned by the Tāmaki Regeneration Company (TRC), which was transferred ownership from Housing New Zealand as a part of the Tāmaki redevelopment. TRC wants to develop the land that her house sits on.

    “While the government and the council say these evictions are necessary to keep house prices down, we’ve seen a huge increase in house prices in the area since the redevelopments began.”

    “The government is effectively kicking out old and poor people and making room for the rich. Niki’s eviction is just one part of a broader plan to undermine state housing and transfer land to the wealthy,” says Rākete.

    The organisation is worried about how the move might impact Niki’s health and well-being. “Niki is an elderly woman who has a heart condition. One of the saddest parts of the Tāmaki redevelopment has been the effect on the elderly. Often, following eviction from life-long homes, elderly tenants have passed away shortly after being relocated.”

    No Pride in Prisons is also concerned about the police involvement in evicting Niki. According to Rākete, “The police will do everything it can to make sure that this blatantly unjust process continues. Niki is a respected kuia, but the police intend to remove her from her home by force.”

    “We oppose both Niki’s eviction and the violence we expect to see from police in order to make it happen.”

    “We believe that Niki and all other tenants deserve healthy, warm and affordable homes, and the stability of knowing they won’t be evicted every time the government wants to make a buck.”

    “We support the Tāmaki Housing Group and all those resisting the sell-off of state houses and the eviction of state housing tenants. This injustice is part of a broader program by this and previous governments to undermine support for poor and working class people.”

    “No Pride in Prisons stands in solidarity with those fighting for safe and secure housing for all.”

    Conversations from Te Hui Takatāpui - No Pride in Prisons

    Check out this video where Ēmi from No Pride in Prisons explains how the criminal injustice system discriminates against Māori and maintains settler colonialism.

    On the 11th of February No Pride in Prisons, alongside other organisations across the country, will be holding a march against expanding prisons, overcrowding, and the unjust punishment system! The prison population in Aotearoa has just reached...

    On the 11th of February No Pride in Prisons, alongside other organisations across the country, will be holding a march against expanding prisons, overcrowding, and the unjust punishment system! The prison population in Aotearoa has just reached 10,000 for the first time. The recent Ombudsman’s reports have revealed that prisoners are exposed to constant threats of violence and subjected to practices that amount to torture. There is no reason to keep locking more people away from their loved ones in inhumane conditions. It doesn’t help them become better people, and it doesn’t keep their communities safe. The government has continued to ignore the growing evidence that prisons don’t do what they’re supposed to. Over the next few years, $2.5 billion worth of prison construction and expansion has been planned, including a new prison in Waikeria. This year, the New Zealand government budgeted one billion dollars for the Department of Corrections. What could one billion dollars be doing for impoverished communities across Aotearoa? For the more than 20,000 children with a parent in prison? For education? For housing? For the 1,000 people who are going to be put in Waikeria? It is clear that at this point the government cannot justify its commitment to the existing prison system. This is nothing more than incarceration for incarceration’s sake, and it is unacceptable. We believe that all of us have a reason to oppose the locking up of 10,000 people away from their communities. We invite you to come to 10,000 Too Many, a march against mass incarceration. We’d really like to see you there! EVENT LINKS: FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/events/1295188543879616/ EVENT SITE: https://sites.google.com/view/10000toomany/home

    Following four simultaneous actions at Department of Corrections offices nationwide last week, prison advocacy group No Pride in Prisons reaffirms its commitment to advocating for a suicidal transgender woman in 23-hour lockdown. “Corrections denied...

    Following four simultaneous actions at Department of Corrections offices nationwide last week, prison advocacy group No Pride in Prisons reaffirms its commitment to advocating for a suicidal transgender woman in 23-hour lockdown.

    “Corrections denied a vulnerable suicidal person access to human contact, then withdrew her access to phone counselling when she spoke to media about her situation. We chose to take urgent action because we fear for her life,” spokesperson Emilie Rākete says.

    “Corrections has continued to maintain that 23-hour lockdown is the safest place for this woman, but she has been very clear that if she is not moved out of isolation soon she will be leaving in a body bag.”

    No Pride in Prisons says all the international evidence shows that solitary confinement and isolation exacerbates mental health issues and suicidality. “People placed in solitary are more likely to attempt suicide, experience psychosis, experience PTSD on release, and are less prepared to reintegrate into society upon release.”

    “Once again Corrections have proven that it would rather do nothing and let prisoners suffer and die alone than ask them what they need.”

    “According to a Department of Corrections study, the suicide rate in prisons is four times higher than the national rate. When nearly one in twenty prisoners attempts suicide in a given year, the role of incarceration must be part of any national conversation on suicide prevention.”

    “This woman’s mental and physical health are incredibly compromised right now,” Rākete continues. “Corrections has punished her for speaking to media about the appalling conditions she has experienced by withdrawing her access to counselling. This is absolutely unacceptable.”

    “According to the Corrections Act 2004, prisoners must receive a standard of care that is reasonably equivalent to that available to the public. Preventing a suicidal young woman from accessing counselling because she exercised her freedom of speech in desperation is decidedly substandard healthcare.”

    Ahi Wi-Hongi, National Coordinator of Gender Minorities Aotearoa, agrees. “When a society decides to use prisons instead of prevention and rehabilitation, it decides that vulnerable people are going to be locked away without control over their own lives.

    "It strips our tino rangatiratanga. If a person is held captive, the captors need to ensure the person’s humanity is held. Holding someone in isolation without human contact violates their humanity. No one can be ok under those conditions, and as a society we are all responsible.”

    “There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for solitary confinement to be used as either punishment or for safety,” Rākete repeats.

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    Abolitionist Demand 50: Abolish prisons in Aotearoa.

    This is a part of No Pride in Prisons’ Abolitionist demands. These demands were originally published as a book. To see a pdf of the book, click here. To buy a copy, please email info@noprideinprisons.org.nz

    If nothing else, No Pride in Prisons hopes that these abolitionist demands have demonstrated the fundamental injustice that underpins New Zealand’s Criminal Injustice System (CIS). There are a large number of practices that lead to the dehumanisation of those who are unfortunate enough to be incarcerated in New Zealand.

    There are those currently languishing in conditions akin to solitary confinement,[1] stuck in their cells for up to 23 hours a day, and experiencing what the UN has defined as torture.[2] As a regular practice, incarcerated people are sexually assaulted through a strip search[3] every time they leave or enter a prison. Trans people in prisons are not given consistent and guaranteed access to gender affirming clothing, accessories[4] and medical treatment.[5] Trans women are often housed in men’s prisons,[6] against their will, put at substantial risk of being sexually assaulted.[7] Sentenced prisoners are denied the right to vote,[8] demonstrating the state’s desire to deny recognition of personhood to those people.

    Incarcerated people who the Department of Corrections forces to work[9] in a form of contemporary penal slavery, as well as those who choose to work, are not only being denied a living or minimum wage (or any wage),[10] but also the right to raise pay and safety concerns.[11] Whānau and friends of incarcerated people are often denied access to their loved ones during visitation because they cannot afford the time or money required to travel to New Zealand’s often remote prisons.

    These practices, as well as the constant threat of violence that incarcerated people face, all make prisons unbearable places to be. The isolation, violence, loneliness, boredom, strip searches, and anger at the system, amongst other things, leads some incarcerated people to lash out against others and themselves. Incarcerated people commit suicide at a rate of approximately 72 per 100,000,[12] compared with a rate of 12-13 per 100,000 in New Zealand broadly.[13] This means that incarcerated people on average commit suicide at a rate six times higher than the general population. New Zealand prisons have become a place where we send our most vulnerable and mentally unwell people.[14] They are also a place where the conditions of life are so unbearable that it is impossible for some to live.

    So if the prison is so inhumane, why does it continue to exist? In The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison, Jeffrey Reiman notes how the prison is, at the same time, a complete disaster and a resounding success. In terms of keeping communities safe, reducing social harm, or even reducing reoffending, prisons including New Zealand’s, consistently fail.[15] However, according to Reiman, “the failure of the criminal justice system yields such benefits to those in positions of power that it amounts to a success.”[16]

    This success occurs precisely because of the incarceration of predominantly poor and indigenous people. In New Zealand, Māori make up 15% of the population but over 50% of the prison population.[17] At every stage of the CIS, racism and racial bias is evident.[18] These practices ultimately divert attention away from the broader causes of societal harm, such as capitalism and structural racism, and place blame on the incarcerated person for the social forces that lead them to prison.

    In a more general sense, the CIS benefits those in positions of privilege by defining the actions of the wealthy as ordinary activities, while the poor are punished for things which are often much less destructive. The practices of those who traded the world into financial collapse, corporations that spew toxins into rivers and the air, the employers who are more concerned with increasing productivity than with protecting the bodies of their employees – these actions amongst countless others of the wealthy do much more damage than the young Māori man possessing methamphetamine. Yet it is the latter that the CIS invites us to fear. The prison diverts attention away from those threats to security that come from the police, other government agencies, and exploitative corporations. Therefore, the successful failure of the prison is that it leaves unquestioned the destructive actions of the powerful.

    The abolition of prisons in New Zealand is the only socially acceptable, feasible alternative to the CIS and mass incarceration.


    [1]Radio New Zealand, “Prisoner Death at Mt Eden Prison,” Radio New Zealand, 13 March 2016. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/top/298812/too-many-unnatural-deaths-in-prison-labour.

    [2] UN News Centre, “Solitary Confinement Should Be Banned in Most Cases, UN Expert Says,” UN News Centre, 18 October 2011. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=40097#.V5w7O-t96Um.

    [3] T Lamusse, “The State of Incarceration in Aotearoa,” No Pride in Prisons, 23 February 2016. http://noprideinprisons.org.nz/post/139820612145/the-state-of-incarceration-in-aotearoa.

    [4] Jeremy Lightfoot, “C76665 S Vella,” FYI.org.nz, 29 April 2016. https://fyi.org.nz/request/3703/response/12759/attach/html/3/C76665%20S%20Vella.pdf.html.

    [5] Jeremy Lightfoot, “Response C76663,” FYI.org.nz, 29 April 2016. https://fyi.org.nz/request/3701/response/12756/attach/html/3/Response%20C76663.pdf.html.

    [6] Jeremy Lightfoot, “C73361 S Buchanan,” FYI.org.nz, 23 October 2015. https://fyi.org.nz/request/2867/response/10098/attach/html/3/C73361%20S%20Buchanan.pdf.html.

    [7] Valerie Jenness et al., Violence in California Correctional Facilities: An Empirical Examination of Sexual Assault, (California: Center for Evidence-Based Corrections, 2007).

    [8] Aimee Gulliver, “Prisoners Should Be Allowed to Vote: High Court,” Stuff, 4 July 2015. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/70520140/Prisoners-should-be-allowed-to-vote-High-Court.

    [9] Chris Bramwell, “Working Prisons Pledge from National,” Radio New Zealand, 10 September 2014. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/254242/working-prisons-pledge-from-national.

    [10] Isaac Davison, “All Work, No Pay in Prison Reforms,” NZ Herald, 30 January 2013. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10862240.

    [11]Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 s 15.

    [12]No Pride in Prisons, “Corrections Responsible for High Rates of Suicide in Prisons,” Scoop, 14 March 2016. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1603/S00213/corrections-responsible-for-high-rates-of-suicide-in-prisons.htm.

    [13] Statistics New Zealand, “Suicide,” Statistics New Zealand, 3 June 2016. http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/snapshots-of-nz/nz-social-indicators/Home/Health/suicide.aspx.

    [14] Department of Corrections, The National Study of Psychiatric Morbidity in New Zealand Prisons: An Investigation of the Prevalence of Psychiatric Disorders among New Zealand Inmates, (Wellington: Department of Corrections, 1999.

    [15] One News, “Corrections in the Dock Over Racism Allegations,” One News, 14 March 2016. https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/corrections-in-dock-over-racism-allegations.

    [16] Jeffrey H. Reiman, The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison, (Michigan: Pearson, 2004), 5.

    [17] Statistics New Zealand, “New Zealand’s Prison Population,” Statistics New Zealand, 4 July 2013. http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/snapshots-of-nz/yearbook/society/crime/corrections.aspx.

    [18] Department of Corrections, Over-representation of Māori in the Criminal Justice System: An Exploratory Report, (Wellington: Department of Corrections, 2007).

    Abolitionist Demand 49: Institute tikanga Māori.

    This is a part of No Pride in Prisons’ Abolitionist demands. These demands were originally published as a book. To see a pdf of the book, click here. To buy a copy, please email info@noprideinprisons.org.nz

    The colonial government’s Department of Corrections runs a number of so-called ‘tikanga Māori’ programmes, with the nominal goal of rehabilitating incarcerated Māori people. While these programmes may do good for Māori in prisons in terms of fostering cultural knowledge they may not have had access to otherwise, any benefits of these programmes are in spite of, not because of, their situation within the prison system. Out of a prison capacity of 682, Hawke’s Bay Regional Prison has 15 places in its tikanga Māori programme.[1] If these proportions are representative, only approximately 5% of Māori people incarcerated at Hawke’s Bay would have access to tikanga Māori programmes. Even this level of access is contingent on an incarcerated person’s adherence to discipline. People are removed from rehabilitation programmes as punishment for refusing to adhere to prison rules.[2] These programmes simply fail to meaningfully intervene in the lives of Māori. The reality of mass incarceration is that thousands of Māori are being removed from their whānau, hapū and iwi. If cultural revitalisation is to be realised, it is these groups who must be proactively empowered to do that work – not the occupational New Zealand state, which is responsible for the present derogation of Māori.

    The punitive removal of incarcerated people from tikanga Māori programmes for breaches of discipline also acts to ensure that Māori cultural knowledge is available only at the New Zealand government’s discretion. Rather than working towards the realisation of tino rangatiratanga as a principle of tikanga Māori, these programmes are administered at the will of the settler state and its sovereignty, and incarcerated people will be removed from them if they challenge that sovereignty.[3]

    Even more importantly, it is essential to recognise that tikanga Māori are fundamentally incompatible with the system of mass incarceration. Ani Mikaere records utu as a fundamental principle of all tikanga Māori.[4] In the wake of an instance of social harm, the restoration of balance on an interpersonal and community scale is of the utmost importance.[5] Mass incarceration – the wholesale removal of human beings from their communities and their warehousing in prisons – destroys this balance. Within tikanga Māori, when harm is done, the relationship between perpetrator, victim, and their communities must be restored so that the damage done to the community can be healed. By tearing perpetrators out of their communities, removing all possibility of utu, the prison not only fails to restore these relationships, but ends them.[6] Rather than addressing social harm, prisons in fact perpetuate it. For the institution of tikanga Māori, prisons must be abolished.[7]

    [1] Department of Corrections, “Corrections Department NZ – Corrections Works December 2014 (special Maori Services Edition),” Department of Corrections, 1 December 2014. http://www.corrections.govt.nz/resources/newsletters_and_brochures/corrections_works/2014/December_2014.html.

    [2] This critique of prison programmes in general as instruments of control was raised in Olive McRae, “Prison Reform on the Path to Prison Abolition,” International Socialist Organisation of Aotearoa/New Zealand, 15 September 2014. https://iso.org.nz/2014/09/15/prison-reform-on-the-path-to-prison-abolition/.

    [3] Ibid.

    [4] 

    • Abolitionist Demand 48: Decolonize Aotearoa.

    This is a part of No Pride in Prisons’ Abolitionist demands. These demands were originally published as a book. To see a pdf of the book, click here. To buy a copy, please email info@noprideinprisons.org.nz

    In 1835, rangatira Māori ratified He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni,[1] declaring sovereign independence for Māori. He Whakaputanga uses the term “rangatiratanga” to refer to the right to Māori sovereignty, a term later used again in Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840. In 2014, the Waitangi Tribunal confirmed that Māori have never ceded this sovereignty to either the British or New Zealand states.[2] The New Zealand government’s claim to state sovereignty, implicitly based on its interpretation of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, requires this not to be true. In practice, the New Zealand state secured its right to govern by militarily destroying all Māori attempts to resist it, as in the Flagstaff War against Ngāpuhi and the New Zealand Wars against the Kīngitanga. In both those instances, first northern Māori, and then Waikato Māori, exercised their autonomy and challenged the British state’s sovereignty. The New Zealand state owes its continued existence to these repeated wars of invasion, conquest and genocide[3] waged against Māori. The New Zealand state, therefore, is in essence maintaining a military occupation of Aotearoa.

    The term ‘military occupation’ is used specifically to identify Aotearoa as a colony. The acts of military violence used by the New Zealand state to secure its sovereignty were not departures from a civility to which it gratefully returned at the conclusion of the Land Wars. Rather, the colony’s existence depends on the New Zealand government’s acts of warfare against Māori – violence which continues to this day. Only our ability to recognise this violence as warfare has changed. Over the last century, the New Zealand state’s warfare has changed from the overt violence of mass military action to the systematic violence of poverty and societal racism, enforced by the Criminal Injustice System.

    This racist violence is not an accident, but the necessary outcome of the historical processes from which the New Zealand state emerges. Racism is an essential component of the New Zealand government – it cannot exist without the racist suppression of tino rangatiratanga. No racism, no New Zealand. Finding this racism incompatible with social justice, and recognising that racism is an intrinsic component of the New Zealand state, No Pride in Prisons affirms that a complete restructuring of social, political, and economic power is necessary, culminating in the overturning of the New Zealand government.

    Within tikanga Māori, rangatiratanga is qualitatively different to the Eurocentric concept of nation-statehood. The nation-state is a specific political tool developed to centralise state power in a governmental body. Rangatiratanga, by contrast, operates on the level of relationships within a community and bears more in common with participatory or radical democracy than with state sovereignty. By calling for decolonisation, No Pride in Prisons is advocating not for a Māori nation-state, with all of the abuses of power that by definition a nation-state entails, but a communal, relational society based in tikanga Māori.

    [1] Translated as ‘A declaration of the paramount authority in respect of New Zealand.’ Margaret Mutu, The State of Māori Rights, (Wellington: Huia, 2011), 205.

    [2] Waitangi Tribunal, Te Paparahi o te Raki: Wai 1040, (Wellington: Waitangi Tribunal, 2014).

    [3] Ani Mikaere, “Three (Million) Strikes and Still Not Out: The Crown as the Consummate Recidivist,” in He Rukuruku Whakaaro: Colonising Myths, Māori Realities (Wellington: Huia Publishers, 2011).

    Abolitionist Demand 47: Institute community-based solutions to harm and violence.

    This is a part of No Pride in Prisons’ Abolitionist demands. These demands were originally published as a book. To see a pdf of the book, click here. To buy a copy, please email info@noprideinprisons.org.nz

    As prison abolitionists, it is our responsibility to provide sensible alternatives to the prison. Alongside the re-institution of tikanga Māori, our suggestion is the system of transformative justice.

    Adopting a system of transformative justice in the place of the prison means abandoning the project for creating enemies to exile and isolate, as well as the project for creating profitability out of the isolation of those ‘enemies.’ Rather than demonising and incarcerating perpetrators in inhumane conditions, transformative justice begins from the understanding that people who are hurt in turn hurt others. This hurt can stem from events specific to the perpetrator’s life, such as physical or sexual abuse that they then go on to re-enact, or from more structural factors, such as poverty and colonisation. Transformative justice understands that the isolation and cruelty of incarceration only exacerbates such suffering, thus reinforcing the roots of the harm enacted by a perpetrator. Instead, transformative justice looks to protect the victim and address the issues behind the perpetrator’s actions, transforming their conditions and attitudes for the better.

    For a full discussion of community-based solutions to harm and violence, see demand 10.

    • Abolitionist Demand 46: Allow for the unionisation of incarcerated workers.

    This is a part of No Pride in Prisons’ Abolitionist demands. These demands were originally published as a book. To see a pdf of the book, click here. To buy a copy, please email info@noprideinprisons.org.nz

    All workers, including unemployed and incarcerated workers, deserve the right to create or join a union in order to advance and protect their rights.[1] Incarcerated people are one of if not the most disempowered and constrained groups in society. This makes their right to organise collectively all the more important.

    Department of Corrections staff are represented by New Zealand’s largest union, the Public Service Association (PSA), which negotiates collective agreements for members, and pushes for safety measures for staff.[2] These measures are often implemented to the detriment of incarcerated people, with the introduction of access to things such as pepper spray,[3] as well as calls for prison officers to be armed with tasers, batons, and attack dogs.[4] The armament of prison officers with various weapons comes despite the number of serious assaults on prison staff falling by 75% over fifteen years.[5]

    In contrast, incarcerated people are virtually powerless to advocate for higher wages for labour they are coerced into, as well as to advocate for their own safety, dignity, rights, treatment, or release. A union of incarcerated people would be able to organise against such blatant injustices as the Electoral (Disqualification of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Act 2010, which prevents incarcerated people from voting and is inconsistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (see Demand 43).

    If allowed to unionise, incarcerated people could collectively advocate for their interests. They would be able to achieve better living and working conditions, proper wages and legal employment protection, and the means to protest human rights abuses and inadequacies in the prison system. There is no more important a voice missing in the conversation about the future of the carceral system than a collective of incarcerated people themselves. Allowing for the unionisation of incarcerated workers would allow those workers to protect their most basic rights and interests. This is not an ability that should be denied to anybody, and it is for this reason that No Pride in Prisons demands that incarcerated people be granted the legal right to unionise.

    [1] Matt Born, “Prisoners in Move to Set up Trade Union,” The Telegraph, 21 August 2000. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1367035/Prisoners-in-move-to-set-up-trade-union.html.

    [2] Public Service Association, “What We Stand For,” Public Service Association, 7 April 2016. https://www.psa.org.nz/about-us/who-we-are/what-we-stand-for/.

    [3] “All Prison Officers to Have Access to Pepper Spray,” NZ Herald, 12 June 2012. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10812501.

    [4] NZPA, “Prison Attack Sparks Near-riot,” Stuff, 31 October 2010. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/4292095/Prison-attack-sparks-near-riot.

    [5] New Zealand Government, “Increased Safety for Prison Officers,” Scoop, 12 June 2012. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1206/S00131/increased-safety-for-prison-officers.htm.

    • Abolitionist Demand 45: Grant the same employment rights to incarcerated workers as those provided to non-incarcerated workers.

    This is a part of No Pride in Prisons’ Abolitionist demands. These demands were originally published as a book. To see a pdf of the book, click here. To buy a copy, please email info@noprideinprisons.org.nz

    Incarcerated workers are denied some of the fundamental rights guaranteed to many non-incarcerated workers. In a 1965 New Zealand Supreme Court ruling, Morgan v Attorney-General,[1] it was found that incarcerated people directed to work by the Prisons Department (now the Department of Corrections) are not to be considered employees. Similarly, in a 2008 ruling, M & P Steelcraft Ltd v Ellis,[2] an incarcerated worker on a job placement scheme was also found not to be an employee of the external employer.

    These rulings allow the Department of Corrections to ignore employment legislation that regulate all other employers in New Zealand. It also means that those employing incarcerated workers on Release to Work programmes[3] are not subject to employment law for the purposes of employing incarcerated people.  This means that incarcerated workers are not guaranteed the rights enshrined in the Employment Relations Act 2000 and the Minimum Wage Act 1983. These rights include the, however limited,[4] rights to holiday pay and leave, sick leave, overtime pay, bathroom breaks, a minimum wage, and collective bargaining. Therefore it is entirely up to the Department of Corrections to determine the number of hours people work, as well as whether it will allow workers to have breaks or go to the bathroom during working hours.

    Of recent concern is the fact that, with the passage of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 following the Pike River Mine Disaster, incarcerated workers are specifically banned from raising health and safety complaints with their employers, be they the Department of Corrections or a private employer.[5] When workers do not have the right to raise concerns about safety in the workplace, exploitative workplace practices which put workers’ bodies in danger can continue.

    No Pride in Prisons demands that the unassailable rights of incarcerated workers, as workers, be recognised in legislation. In this way, the struggle for the dignity of incarcerated workers would be shared with non-incarcerated workers. All the stripping back of workers’ rights over the past thirty years need to be restored and expanded. Solidarity between a powerful incarcerated workers union on the inside and non-incarcerated workers on the outside will help to end the exploitative practices of employers everywhere. This can only happen, however, by allowing incarcerated workers the right to unionise. It is only through collective action against exploitative employers that these demands can be achieved, and the bonds of solidarity between incarcerated and non-incarcerated workers be effective in the struggle to end labour exploitation.

    [1]Morgan v Attorney-General [1965] NZLR 134 (SC).

    [2]M & P Steelcraft Ltd v Ellis [2008] ICR 578 (EAT).

    [3] Department of Corrections, “Release to Work,” Department of Corrections, 6 March 2016. http://www.corrections.govt.nz/working_with_offenders/prison_sentences/employment_and_support_programmes/employment_activities/release_to_work.html.

    [4] Chris Flatt, “When Workers Rights Are Under Attack!,” The Daily Blog, 26 April 2013. http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/04/26/when-workers-rights-are-under-attack/.

    [5]Health and Safety at Work Act s 15.