September 22, 2022
Wahine prisoners sacrificed for staff shortages
A lawyer representing inmates at Arohata Women’s Prison say they’re being sacrificed because of short staff in Corrections.
The wahine were refused an injunction that would have stopped them being transferred from Wellington to Christchurch Women’s Prison.
Amanda Hill says she’s still waiting for the judgment giving the reasons for the decision.
She says the eight she represented had connections to iwi in the lower North Island, and shifting them to Te Waipounamu sepaates them from whanau and in some cases young children.
“It flies in the face of Hokai Rangi, the strategy the minister introduced with a lot of fanfare last year for Maori in prisons and it flies in the face of the wahine strategy (Corrections) also brought in so they have these two policies and they’ve gone out the window for these women and they’re very much being sacrificed to staff the men’s prisons,” she says.
Ms Hill says netting is now being put over buildings at Arohata, indicating the prison with the only residential drug rehabilitation facility for women is closing long term..