Botched Māori strategy fueled prison riot

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Peter Verschaffelt Juan (Floyd) du Plessis | Botched Māori strategy fueled prison riot

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The head of a staff union says the failure by Corrections to implement the Hōkai Rangi policy for Māori behind bars was a factor in the new year’s riot at Waikeria Prison four years ago.

The report of the Office of the Inspectorate, released last week after the end of the court cases arising from the riot, said the prison’s response when the riot broke out on December 29 was characterised by poor communication and ineffective command and control.

The, at times, disrespectful staff culture and generally poor conditions were inconsistent with the principles of Hōkai Rangi to uplift the oranga of Māori and others in custody.

Juan du Plessis, the president of the Corrections Association, says Hōkai Rangi is underpinned by sound principles about how to drive change from a Maori perspective.

“A lot of those are brilliant. Unfortunately what we’ve had over the last few years is people using the guise of Hokai Rangi to implement things in a bad way and not do it properly and that’s what leads to some of the issues we face,” he says.

Mr du Plessis says staff need more training on how to deal with troublesome prisoners, but there also needs to be better training for managers on how to work with staff,

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