Laurelei Bautista writes that the dehumanising treatment of Māori prisoners in Waikeria prison is a symptom of a Corrections system that needs transformation.

Earlier this year, protests arose in Waikeria Prison after its prisoners had come forward with demands for clean water, soap, toilet paper, and many other basic human necessities — of which they had been deprived. One of New Zealand’s largest prisons, Waikeria, in the Waikato, has around 750 inmates. A recent Ombudsman report showed that the prisoners had been stripped of their human dignity for months and that their multiple attempts to resolve the matter internally were ignored by the authorities. Instead of addressing the issues immediately, lack of action from authorities resulted in a six-day standoff before the prisoners' demands were finally met.

Meeting those demands was the least the government could do in the grand scheme of things — these issues are a result of everything that’s wrong with Aotearoa’s justice system and its decades of systemic discrimination.

The Manifesto of the Waikeria protestors illustrates how these problems develop and persevere, along with why it took so long for them to be resolved finally.

Prison System Punishes Rather than Restores Inmates

New Zealand prisons are modelled after European modes of punishment developed over hundreds of years. These modes were imported to Aotearoa and imposed upon the indigenous people with no thought to whether they were fitting or just. Indigenous modes of justice and reparation were devalued. But the system suited colonisers — the majority population — and so it has persisted to this day. Māori make up 50 per cent of the incarcerated population despite being 15 per cent of the general population. If the situation was otherwise, the abuse at Waikeria would probably not have reached the point of an uprising.

This oppression harms us all — collectively, we are all affected by the inequalities and stigmas perpetuated by prisons and other institutions. Prisons affect more than just the people within them. They reach families, towns, schools and workplaces. A community cannot truly thrive if the success of one group means the oppression of another.

An even wider issue arises in that Waikeria is not an isolated case. For decades stories have come to light of extreme mistreatment against prisoners throughout our entire Corrections department. Ombudsman reports continually identify inhumane conditions in prisons throughout the country. Last year Auckland prison at Paremoremo was found to be in breach of the UN Convention Against Torture for the unjustified use of pepper spray and keeping prisoners in cells for up to 23 hours a day.

Reform Needed

Prison reform is needed now more than ever. Recently the story of Mihi Bassett being held in a wing known for its harsh conditions for longer than the legal limit, was broadcast. She had been threatened with pepper spray and was handled violently following a suicide attempt. The cruelty shown to her and others at Auckland Women’s Prison is reflective of the power imbalance between Māori prisoners and a Corrections system grounded in Pākehā values.

There are rules in place meant to protect people like Mihi from the harms that they’ve faced, but the willingness of those around her to both ignore and perpetuate those problems shows that a holistic overhaul must be carried out. If prisons are meant to promote justice and safety in our communities, they cannot be synonymous with degradation and cruelty — as they are today.

Negligence towards prisoners' needs for basic hygiene accompanies severely damaging approaches to mental health. While prisons exist to limit freedoms, they ought not also restrict rights to services that fulfil the most fundamental parts of life.

The argument that people deserve deprivation as punishment is rooted in deep prejudice: no one deserves to be robbed of their human dignity and everyone has the right to decency and fair treatment.

Questioning the deservedness of abuse is a product of the failure to address the real issue — that such cruelty is allowed to happen in the first place.

Clearly a system is flawed if the people enforcing its rules are the same ones who are breaking them.

Towards Meaningful Change

With this in mind, how can we achieve meaningful change?

We cannot address the Waikeria protesters’ demands without addressing the systemic discrimination that has unfolded over decades.

Analyse Our History

The starting point for transformation is analysing our history and knowing what works and what doesn’t. The Waikeria uprising shows us that a system built by and for white people is oppressive of Māori and other minorities.

Listen to Māori

Past reforms have often excluded or drowned out Māori voices, despite Māori being those most affected negatively by the status quo. The 2019 Hōkai Rangi strategy from Corrections illustrated that reform looks a lot more doable on paper than it does in practice. But change is always possible when people in power choose to act differently.

More energy and resources must be put towards transforming the system. We need to listen to the voices of those most affected, and also amplify them, especially by taking a tikanga-based approach.

Give Reform Urgency

Allowing Waikeria to become just another fleeting news story would be an injustice. What happened should serve as a wake-up call to push for and prioritise urgent and restorative action.

Transforming our justice system not only benefits those in prison, but also the communities prisons serve. A serious overhaul that focuses on rehabilitation would promote safety for citizens both outside of and within prisons — exactly what the institution is meant to do. Going months without clean water or clothing is

damaging to a person physically and mentally: when we take away the bare necessities of life, we are complicit in a broken system.

Learn from Mistakes

Rather than being an institution that fosters cruelty, we need Corrections to own up to its faults and practise compassion. A system that deflects and distracts from the abuses happening within its own walls, cannot be aligned with justice. People in prison are human — our brothers, mothers, uncles and cousins — and they have the right to be treated as such.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 258 April 2021: 10-11