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Greens co-leader Metiria Turei says private prison operator Serco is running true to form with allegations of organised fights and assaults on inmates at Mount Eden Prison.
Labour's corrections spokesperson Kelvin Davis yesterday forced a snap debate on the issue, and alleged gangs were dropping inmates off balconies if they refused to particpate in the fights.
Ms Turei says the Greens had opposed prison outsourcing because prisons are the ultimate form of state force, and because there have been multiple scandals about Serco's management of prisons and detention centres around the world.
"National goes on on and on about how the contract requires them to meet certain obligations like fewer beatings, fewer escapes that sort of thing. But that is not where the money is being made, the money is made in reducing staff," she says.
Ms Turei says Serco has half the staff in its secure wings as in state prisons, and it also underspends on rehabilitation.
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