‘Scandal’ over jails

Press, 12 June 1989, Page 1

‘Scandal’ over jails

By

GLEN PERKINSON

The Government’s cool response to the Roper report on prisons has drawn fire from prison chaplains, who say it is a scandal that the continuation of the present system is even being considered.

The 300-page report, released last week, recommended more than 200 reforms for the country’s prison system, which it said was working abysmally. The Minister of Justice, Mr Palmer, said many of the reforms would be prohibitvely expensive. Mr Palmer said he was nervous and cautious about much of the report’s content. He labelled other recommendations bold and innovative.

The Rev. Jim Consedine, a spokesman for the Christchurch Ecumenical Prison Chaplains, last evening accused the Government of backing away from the report. Father Consedine, the chaplain at Addington Prison, said: “We

consider it a public scandal that politicians could even consider a continuation of the present failed system.” The report singled out Addington as one of the country’s worst

institutions and said that if its reforms had been in place, last year’s riot there could have been avoided.

The chaplains had campaigned against dismal remand conditions for years and were delighted that calls for new remand centres to be built to a standard meeting United Nations minimum standards were included in the report. The chaplains’ biggest gripe with the Government’s response is about the cost of reforms.

If the public genuinely want the high crime rate reduced then they have to allow the crime factories we call prisons to be dismantled and allow more positive institutions to be built. “Habilitation centres will do this,” Father Consedine said. “We believe the Minister and others have grossly over-estim-ated the cost of funding this new approach. We accept that it can’t happen overnight, but acceptance of the principle of habilitation is vital if the Government is serious about law and order.