November 17, 2015
How prepared is NZ for Australian prisoners?
How prepared is NZ for Australian prisoners?
MARTYN BRADBURY
New Zealand is set to take back 20 prisoners from Australia as part of that nations new policy to throw anyone out of the country if they are a not a citizen and convicted of a crime that has a one year jail sentence. The severity of this new law – passed in December of last year seems to have caught the National Party completely unaware and has required a rushed through law under urgency to punish these prisoners further with long lasting and intrusive state surveillance once they land in New Zealand.
The slowness of the Governments response highlights how little time or energy is spent on prisoner rights in New Zealand, and with half the prison population Maori, the problem seems to get even less attention than it deserves.
Take the law National are passing right now, it's focused on being able to make life difficult for the returning prisoners – all of whom have served their full sentence – rather than considerations for housing, jobs or further rehabilitation. So underfunded are these services domestically, National have little interest in spending anything on these newly imported prisoners.
National has done very little in preparing for the return of these prisoners and only seem to have been prompted into action when the media picked up the story of how badly treated they were in Australian detention camps. This culminated in the appalling behaviour of the Prime Minister last week when he declared any concern over the human rights of these prisoners was 'backing rapists, child molesters and murderers'.
How a society treats its lowest members is an important symbol of how developed that society is and based on our soaring incarceration rates, tough on crime rhetoric and private prisons, we are very undeveloped.
Martyn Bradbury
Editor – TheDailyBlog.co.nz
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