May 29, 2024
Mega-prison “cage for Māori”
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A member of People Against Prisons Aotearoa says mass incarceration endangers communities.
The group protested outside Auckland Remand Prison in Mt Eden on Saturday against the $1.9 billion that will be in tomorrow’s Budget to turn Waikeria Prison near Te Awamutu into an 1800-bed mega-prison.
Auckland University senior law lecturer Fuimaono Dylan Asafo says that’s a problem when more than half the prison population is Māori.
“So these prisons, they’re not there to keep us safe. They’re essentially cages for Māori and with this $1.9 billion expansion and these 810 new beds, we know who is going to be in those beds – it’s going to be Māori. So it’s racist and it’s in breach of te Tiriti o Waitangi,” he says.
Mr Asafo says the $1.9 billion could be invested in transformative justice, addressing the underlying causes of crime such poverty, housing and healthcare.