Rioting prisoners

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32565, 26 March 1971, Page 8

Rioting prisoners

Sir, —It makes one wonder whether or not the inmates of Mount Eden Prison think t|iey are in a holiday camp with five-star rating. Perhaps they forget that they are in prison as a punitive measure. Two clean sheets weekly, better pay, no radio for some, and poor quality food, etc., etc.! They have no right to these things. Take away their sheets; ban all radios and recreation; let none of them be paid. Certainly try to clean up the sanitary conditions if possible and necessary, but let it be done by the prisoners themselves and feed them one square meal a day and then they might realise they are not on one long holiday. It makes my blood boil to think that it is we, the taxpayers, who are giving them a high standard of living in prison.—Yours, etc., MARGARET MOIR. Franz Josef Glacier. March 22, 1971.

Sir,—Mr Riddiford thinks the public become interested in prisons only when trouble occurs in them. Is this perhaps also true of politicians?

The Penal Institutions Act, 1954, Section 37, permits any member of Parliament to visit any penal institution whenever he thinks fit, to inspect it, and to talk with inmates about their treatment or hear complaints. One wonders how many Parliamentarians ever do this. How many Canterbury members have visited any Christhurch prison in the last 12 months on any other occasion than formal or official functions? Incidentally “penal institution” means any place so gazetted by the Minister, and the Christchurch police gaol, having been so gazetted, would be open to members’ scrutiny along with the prisons at Addington, Paparua and Rolleston. How many of our local members know anything of these places from personal observation and inquiry? The answer would be most interesting.—Yours, etc., SAGITTARIUS. March 25, 1971.