MR KIRK DEPLORES GAOL CROWDING

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32562, 23 March 1971, Page 1

MR KIRK DEPLORES GAOL CROWDING

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, March 22. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Kirk) after touring riot-damaged sections of Mount Eden Prison today, said he was seriously concerned about the growing pressures being placed on the gaol.

“The public has every reason to be grateful to the staff here for the manner in which they contained the prisoners, preventing the development of a far more serious situation,” he said.

“But you cannot keep jamming more and more prisoners into Mount Eden and expect the same level of security to remain. It’s just not good enough,” said Mr Kirk, who was accompanied on the visit by Mr R. J. Tizard, the Labour member of Parliament for Pakuranga, and Mr W. W. Freer (Lab., Mount Albert). Mr Kirk said that when he visited the prison last July its population was - 266, despite the fact that it had been designed to accommodate about 210.

“Today I find the number has reached 375. This places great pressures on the administration as well as increasing the risk for the staff,” he said. The country was coming close to the point where its whole prison capacity was inadequate—affecting public safety and even law enforcement. “There is an urgent need for the placing of a medium prison away from this site which, right in the centre of the city, is not a suitable location,” said Mr Kirk. The Minister of Justice (Mr Riddiford) could look forward to having his estimates more closely scrutinised, although saving money on prison facilities was false economy.

Asked about short-term measures to alleviate overcrowding in Mount Eden, such as the shifting of some inmates to Paremoremo, Mr Kirk said that such a move might not be a good one. The difficulty in transferring prisoners like this was that the trouble could spread from one place to another. “This happened after the 1965 riots in Mount Eden when some inmates were taken to Paparua prison in Christchurch. What happened? There was a riot in Paparua,” said Mr Kirk. He said that Mount Eden was about as safe as it

could be made with full regard to its buildings and facilities, and perhaps a measure to be considered would be the reopening of accommodation which suffered riot damage in 1965. This should be a short-term measure only, but would give a little more time until a start was made on other accommodation.

He had not seen anything of the prisoners’ grievances, other than what had appeared in the press, but felt that complaints would best have been made by inmates approaching the authorities, rather than by taking the action they did.