Power of Mothers by Celia Lashlie

Author:Celia Lashlie [Celia Lashlie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780730493143
Publisher: HarperCollins

Bearing in mind the question of how prisons might be run if we are to maximise their potential to work effectively with those who are sentenced to a term of imprisonment, and the reality that is prison in terms of the necessary maintenance of safety and security, what is happening in New Zealand prisons today? What level of programme delivery is there? How successfully are we addressing the issues of rehabilitation and reintegration? I pose these questions not with a view to seeking or providing official answers, but to set the scene for the increasing concerns I have about the direction in which we, as a country, are moving in terms of prison regimes and management.

At the time of writing, anecdotal information I have received would suggest that somewhere in the vicinity of 70–80 per cent of the approximately 8000 inmates being held in New Zealand’s prisons are currently subject to what the system refers to as an 8–5 management regime: prisoners are locked in their cells from 5 p.m. every night through until 8 a.m. every morning, and unlocked—in theory anyway—from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. This is a recent change of policy, it having been accepted practice in most institutions until now that unlock hours during the week for minimum security inmates were from 7 a.m. until 8.30/9 p.m. An 8–5 management regime on weekends for all inmates had become common practice when I was Manager of Christchurch Women’s Prison in 1999, a cost-saving measure.

As a general rule, all medium security inmates, or at least all high–medium security inmates, are on an 8–5 management regime as a matter of course, in order to maintain an appropriate level of containment and minimise potential incidents. It is in the recreation time in the prison wings between the serving of the evening meal around 5 p.m. and the general lock-up around 8.30 p.m. that the majority of incidents happen, so it makes good sense not to provide that opportunity to medium security inmates who by virtue of their classification present a reasonable risk. However, 8–5 unlocks in minimum security wings are only about cost cutting.

There will be some people reading this, perhaps a lot of people, who will have no problem with the idea of an 8–5 unlock period for all inmates, and it is true that it sounds like a reasonable amount of time for inmates to be out of their cells. It’s an average work day for most New Zealanders—time enough for prisoners to get things done, to attend programmes, to move themselves forward in their sentence. The reality, however, is that it simply doesn’t work that way.

Cost savings were the only reason we locked up inmates at 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday evenings during my time at Christchurch Women’s Prison, and it is the only reason why vast numbers of inmates are being locked up at that time around New Zealand now. I was never fully comfortable with the idea, knowing that the regime meant women were eating their evening meal at 4.

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