Lindsay Mitchell
Lindsay Mitchell has been researching and commenting on welfare since 2001. Many of her articles have been published in mainstream media and she has appeared on radio, TV and before select committees discussing issues relating to welfare. Lindsay is also an artist who works under commission and exhibits at Wellington, New Zealand, galleries.
Today a NZ Herald headline reads:
“Frontline police told to ‘consider necessity’ of bail arrests as NZ’s largest prison nears capacity”
There are two immediate problems with the headline.
How can any New Zealand prison be near capacity when the prison population has been actively reduced by well over 20 per cent since Labour became government?
The possibility arises that one singular prison might still be “nearing capacity”, but on reading that the prison in question is Rimutaka, that is also suspect.
In December 2017, the population at Rimutaka was 1,097.
At December 2022, it was 751. More than 300 fewer prisoners (and it is extremely unlikely that in the three months since it has radically changed.)
The second problem with the headline is that Rimutaka is not New Zealand’s largest prison. The two Auckland facilities each have consistently larger populations.
The article mentions none of this. There is no discussion about WHY Rimutaka is “nearing capacity”. Is it an issue of resourcing? Not enough staff? In recent years Rimutaka reopened some of its older buildings to house overflow from Arohata so it seems unlikely to be a physical capacity problem.
There are some fundamental questions that arise out of a directive to police to make other provision for detainees because Rimutaka is “nearing capacity” that haven’t been asked.
Or, if they were, they haven’t been answered.
Despite Correction’s high-profile recruitment campaign, I suspect the directive is based on the safety of corrections officers if staff/prisoner ratios get too high. And that is a valid concern.
But to have come to this dangerous impasse is more evidence of a government failing and flailing with its lack of consistent, coherent policy and planning.