Good interview from Mark Solomon on Q&A. I don't agree with everything he says but he is our kaiwhakahaere and i support our kaiwhakahaere.
From TVNZ
"GUYON But state owned assets, have you had specific conversation with ministers about Iwi getting involved in stakes of state owned assets.
MARK Yes I have, I first raised it with the National Party in July 2008, prior to them coming into power, did the same with the Labour Party and talks have continued since."
We really need to have a think about this. if, from a maori perspective, state assets are shared with iwi via some ppp's - are iwi just a private company that is maori or are there deeper issues, such as the development of tino rangatiratanga. If maori get involved with these state assets - are they doing it just to make money or are they doing it to assert mana over the area. If just for money - don't do it.
"GUYON Let's look at one of the opportunities that is coming up, and that is in the prison sector, because there is joint development in public private partnership there if you like, in contracting out to private providers. Are Iwi looking at being part of any bids to manage any of the private prisons?
MARK Myself and three other Iwi leaders were invited by TPK to meet with some of the companies that are coming into the company to potentially bid for private prisons. I will be up front, my interest wasn't so much in having an equity share in the prison. I wanted to know how these companies that are offshore companies would deal with the cultural aspects when they came into New Zealand. So we met with GE4S.
GUYON A Melbourne based company.
MARK And Serco, yes the other Australian based company. We were blown away in the way that they deal with their prisoners.
GUYON You were impressed?
MARK We're completely impressed."
When you read about the things that impressed them - these companies or organisations that run prisons should be doing those things anyway. The big danger here is that maori will get used by these corporate-prison entities. I do not believe that prisons should be run for profit. I do not believe that maori should be shareholders in prisons run for profit and i do not believe that private companies should have anything to do with running prisons. I do think that there should be very strong and persuasive cultural content and context for any and all prisoners. In this country the cultural content should be based around te ao maori.
Kia kaha Mark
I think this is a good call by Metiria - it is naive for iwi groups to support private management of prisons. The multi-national companies don't care about prisioners or maori - they care about profit. Iwi groups working for profit off the prison system, when 50% of male and 60% of female prisioners are maori, is wrong.
From RadioNZ
"Waatea News reports iwi including Tainui, Ngati Whatua and Nga Puhi have investigated possible joint ventures with private prison operators in line with a Government move to open the sector to competition.
Ms Turei says the multi-national companies likely to win such contracts are driven solely by profit, and it's foolish to think they share the Maori interest in rehabilitation.
"These corporations don't care for us. They just want to make a buck," she said.
Exactly! I do not believe that prisons should be run for profit. Don't get sucked in iwi groups and please don't go there.
Idiot/Savant has a good post on the news that the disgraceful 3-strikes legislation is now law - this law is terrible. It will mean more prisioners and more maori in prison. It is so futile to just get people out of societies face, pretend there is no problem, lock them up, punish them - can people not see that that does nothing to fix the problem.
I'm dead against these private/public partnerships (privatisaton) of prisons. They will be bad for maori and the rest of the country.
These private prisons cost more than public prisons.
A very good post by Marty G at The Standard
"With echoes of the mining debate, the Government’s apologists on private prisons say ’sure, in principle we shouldn’t do this, punishing criminals is the job of the state, but we’ve got to balance that against all the money we will save… money!!’ and we know that money trumps all for these people.
But do Public Private Partnerships (privatisation in rather tawdry drag) really save money?
The experience here and abroad says no."
They also deliver worse outcomes for society and the prisoners.
A great comment from Eddie C at Kiwipolico
"Been tried, failed (massively overrepresented in prisoner abuse, suicide, and illness rates), and discarded in Ontario. Obviously has also been tried and failed elsewhere, but the Ontario situation is one I’ve actually had occasion to research. And the company responsible was, I believe, GeoCorp, which is one of the frontrunners for any private prisons work here. Geocorp also has a record of trying to influence the development of criminal justice policy to send more people to jail, for longer, in the jurisdictions in which it operates. We really don’t want that sort of crap in NZ.
Funnily enough, they have their own prison town of a sort – Kingston. Lovely city of 100k right on Lake Ontario, beautiful campus of Queens university, the Royal Military College…. and 3 or 4 prisons. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the town (that aren’t students) is employed by either the federal or provincial government."
They will be bad for maori for a number of reasons.
Many maori will be recipients of their so called service. 50% of male prisoners in this country are maori and 60% of women prisoners are maori. So many of our people being wasted, locked up and discarded by society. Private companies have one objective and that is profit. That means cutting costs. And it also means increasing revenue. They are diametrically opposed to what prison should be about - which is to rehabilitate people, to help people find meaningful connection back to society. Yes there is punishment, being in prison is punishment. It is worthless to keep focusing only on the results rather than the causes.
The true reason many maori don't fit into this society and are over represented in prisons is never actually addressed. And the reason is colonisation and the effects of that. When you add in captialism, racial profiling and just plain racism, and the breakdown of community then the mix that causes behaviours that end up in jail begin to be understood.
We are also seeing some of the ways that work to remedy this. Te ao maori has given hope to many prisoners. It has awakened within, pride and understanding, and awareness and that all leads to positive contributions to society. These activities build communities. It is the remedy to the plight of colonisation, and it is the way to bring our people home. Both building knowledge and understanding and building community.
But we have a danger here because these private prison companies don't care about maori - they care about profit. If it makes more profit; it is good. if it reduces profit; it is bad. It is obvious that these companies will use maori for their own profit objectives. There will be all sorts of enticements that will seem good but unfortunately they will be poisoned apples.
Go here to read about the murky dealings in this area between iwi leaders and these private prison companies - it is already happening.
We do have a very real problem that must be faced but bringing private companies into the prisons is not the way to fix it.
