Prison farm profit

Press, 16 June 1979, Page 14

Prison farm profit

The Paparua Prison farm is making a profit, not a loss, says the Superintendent of Christchurch Prison, Mr H. S. Stroud. In response to an article on prisons printed in “The Press” on June 12, Mr Stroud writes: “1 wish to bring to notice the following factual discrepancies in the comments attributed to my staff member Mr Van Hulten: “(1) That 70 per cent of the prison inmates work on the farm. This is not correct. This percentage would refer to the number of inmates employed outside the in-

stitution walls on various types of work including carpentry, painting, plumbing, engineers, mechanics, gardening, pountry, and so on. “The permanent inmate labour force on the farm unit totals only seven and, in addition, work parties are employed on tasks such as shearing, fencing and drainage work. In a private situation much of this work would be done on a contract basis or by mechanisation. “(2) That the farm runs at a loss. This is not supported by the facts. The Paparua Prison farm is administered

along normal accounting procedures and charges are made against income for all expenses including rates, interest on capital and depreciation. “Net profit for the following years was: 1976, §45,495; 1977, $54,455; 1978, $40,775; 1979 (estimated), $70,000. “You may also be interested to know that the prison’s poultry unit is making profits as follows: 1976, $22,184; 1977, $17,585; 1978, $24,907; 1979 (estimated), $30,000. “Finally, comment is made that the Christchurch Prison situation would improve if there was a Regional Superintendent appointed to deal with matters now referred to Wellington. Without commenting on the pros and cons of such an appointment, I would point out that there is no such position in Auckland as the article suggests.”