Iwi short-sighted if they see private prisons as positive

Any iwi leaders who see private prisons as a positive for their people are short sighted and bereft of initiative, says Labour Associate Maori Affairs and Education spokesperson Kelvin Davis.

“Instead of looking for business opportunities in helping to run prisons and locking our own people up, they should be thinking about opportunities for ventures that prevent our people from going to prison in the first place,” Kelvin Davis said.

“One such way would be to ask the government to pay iwi to mentor at-risk Maori kids through until university. Ask any school now, and you’ll be told who the at-risk Maori students are.

“With such a scheme, iwi still get to make money, Maori children will have a pathway to success, and the country will gain from their skills and qualifications and the positive and higher level contribution they will make to iwi and the community once they are in the workforce,” Kelvin Davis said.

“If young Maori do end up in prison at some time, iwi could be made to refund the money they had received. Then there is a real incentive to make it work. In fact, such a concept could work for any ethnic group.

“The argument that iwi can better rehabilitate Maori and reduce recidivism just doesn't wash either,” Kelvin Davis said.

“There is no incentive for private prisons to rehabilitate as that would ultimately mean that their profits would plummet. Iwi-owned prisons would only make money as long as they can keep them filled with whanau.

“Paying iwi to mentor at-risk Maori kids through to university may well seem like hard work to iwi leaders, especially compared to the easy profit to be made almost immediately from locking our people up whenever they fail in their struggle to cope with high Maori unemployment and a soaring crime rate.

“It might be hard work, but the long-term benefits to iwi and the country would be immense. At the moment, iwi leaders who support getting involved with private prisons aren’t really leading, but simply cynically following the Government’s line.”

ENDS

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