NEW ZEALAND
 HALL OF SHAME


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July 19, 2005 Stuff
An inmate in Auckland's former private prison who stowed away in a shipping container to depart New Zealand should be sent back here to face rape charges, says a Fiji court.  The Suva Magistrate's Court recommended that Shumendra Nilesh Chandra, 30, a computer operator, of Auckland be sent back to New Zealand. Australasian Correctional Management, which managed Auckland Central Remand Prison until its contract expired recently, had to pay the Government $50,000 for the escape, under the terms of its contract.  The company said at the time that its investigation into how Chandra allegedly slipped his handcuffs and fled guards was unable to find out how he did it.

July 12, 2005 Scoop
The GEO Group, holders of the private management contract for the Auckland Central Remand Prison, said today that although they were extremely disappointed that the contract had come to a close they would like to thank all of those people who have supported them during their time in New Zealand.  The contract ends at midnight on July 12.

September 18, 2003
A leading lawyer says the Government's Corrections Bill will significantly reduce Maori participation in the areas of prison management and operations.  The attached opinion from Jack Hodder of Chapman Tripp says that handing an exclusive monopoly to the public prison service to manage all prisons "will leave only a peripheral role for Maori service providers in relation to prison management and operations".  The opinion was commissioned by Iwi Whanui O Tamaki Makaurau, an advisory board representing six northern iwi in a formal partnership with Auckland Central Remand Prison (ACRP), New Zealand's only privately managed prison.  "Maori were involved in selecting the current management provider and have formed a partnership with the prison management in which Maori are involved in all areas of the prison, including the development of all programmes and processes.  (Scoop)

April 28, 2003
Acting Corrections Minister Margaret Wilson acknowledges the three-year consultation period on the Corrections Bill did not cover privately-run prisons.  Now the bill is before the law and order select committee.  However, the public has until August 21 to comment.  "The government has no argument with how ACM (Australasian Correctional Management) has managed the prison.  The government's view is that the management of prisons is a core activity of the state, involving the use of highly coercive powers against individuals, and that it is inappropriate for private sector organizations to exercise such powers," she says.  (Sunday Star Times)

March 7, 2003
The Government will phase out the private management of prisons.  Introducing a bill yesterday to overhaul the way jails are run, Acting Corrections Minister Margaret Wilson said managing prisons was a "core activity of the state".  The change will take effect from July 12, 2005, when the sole contract to run a prison, held by Australasian Correctional Management, expires for the Auckland Central Remand Prison.  "Prisons by their very nature involve the use of highly coercive powers against individuals," said Ms Wilson.  "The Government believes that it is inappropriate for private-sector organisations to wield such power."  Prison general manager Dom Karauria said he was extremely disappointed.  The company had planned to submit tenders to run one or two of the new prisons being built round the country, but would now focus on gaining contracts to provide health services in jail.  "Whilst this is disappointing for us, it doesn't mean the end of ACM in New Zealand."  (The New Zealand Herald)

New South Wales
March 19, 2003
Public sector employees today applauded a Carr government commitment to keep NSW prisons in the public domain.  Public Service Association (PSA) secretary Marie O'Sullivan said members were unhappy with state opposition leader John Brogden's plan to press ahead with more private prisons.  "I am delighted that the government intends to have prisons in NSW run by the government and I am very happy that no overseas interests will be able to garner profit from people's incarceration," Ms O'Sullivan said.  The Labor Party said all existing and new jails in NSW would be operated by the public sector, with the exception of Junee jail, which has been privately-run for a decade.  "Laws are made by the government and justice is administered by the government via government-appointed judges and those who ... are sent to jail should be supervised by government-appointed officers," Ms O'Sullivan said.  (AAP)

Public Service Association
July 13, 2005 Scoop
The Public Service Association (PSA) is welcoming the return of the Auckland Central Remand Prison to the public prisons service.  The Public Service Association (PSA) is New Zealand’s largest state sector union, and has a growing membership at the Department of Corrections. The contract between the Department and Australasian Correctional Management Limited to run the remand prison expired overnight. It will now be run by the Department of Corrections.  PSA National Secretary Brenda Pilott said workers employed by the private prison operator had, in effect, made the operation profitable since they were employed on poorer terms and conditions than the rest of the nation’s prison staff.  “Imprisoning people for the crimes they have committed is a core role of the state and it should never be hived off to a private operator for profit.   “The ACRP experiment proved that the exercise was a simple cost-cutting exercise of the type imposed across the public sector during the 1990s.  “It employed fewer officers per inmate and paid them less than staff employed by Corrections at all the other prisons across the country.  “At a time when Corrections is finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain quality staff it beggars belief that National would advocate greater use of private prison contracts. More private prisons would inevitably drag down pay and conditions for all prison staff and make recruitment even harder.  “National’s advocacy of tougher, longer sentences for a wider range of offences means it must be planning to employ many more prison staff. We have to ask who they think is going to staff them?,” Brenda Pilott said.