There have been many articles written this week about whether or not the Christchurch terrorist should be allowed to write letters. Many liberals who supported abolishing the death penalty and supported the homosexual law reform bill have reacted emotionally to this issue and are not interested in upholding the rights of this particular prisoner.
They have allowed their disgust at Tarrant’s despicable actions to cloud their thinking. The bottom line is that as evil as we may view him he is still a human being and the law says that he like all other prisoners has the right to write letters and to send and receive them.
This is not a right that is bestowed depending on the nature of the crime, it is a right that ALL prisoners have and the fact that politicians are already debating whether he should be denied this right is of grave concern.
Democracy isn’t just about honouring the will of the majority, it is also – and perhaps more importantly – about protecting the rights of the minority. Precisely because they are human rights: inherent and unalienable; they are not susceptible to the vagaries of popular opinion. To suggest otherwise, […] is to invest the majority with the power to annihilate their enemies – and democracy along with them.
Chris Trotter
When they learned that Brenton Tarrant’s letters had been sent to 4chan members, Corrections announced that they would prevent him from sending or receiving any mail. Experts, however, have said that this breaks the law and is a knee-jerk and illegal reaction.
They also pointed out that Corrections already have the power to withhold problematic mail from either being sent out or being received. They just have to use that power.
Jacinda Ardern as is her habit has waded into the debate stating that there had “clearly” been a “systemic failure” in that Tarrant was able to send letters to his supporters. If what she said was paraphrased accurately by media then it appears that she doesn’t want Tarrant to be able to communicate with his supporters at all regardless of the content of his letters.
While the Corrections Act states that a prison manager may withhold mail between a prisoner and another person if it could “endanger the safety or welfare of any person” a prisoner is allowed to write to his mother or his friends or supporters about things that are completely innocuous. He has some rights as a prisoner and the right to write is one of them.