Press release - [1:45pm 22/11/2016] - For Immediate Use
PRESS RELEASE: No Pride in Prisons

Anti-prison organisers arrested at occupation of Corrections office

4 members of prison advocacy group No Pride in Prisons have been arrested in an occupation of a Department of Corrections office in Hamilton.

Four Pride in Prisons spokesperson Emilie Rākete says, “The organisers were taking action in response to the treatment of a transgender woman prisoner.”

Rākete says that No Pride in Prisons has been in contact with a transgender woman who was recently moved to an isolation unit at Spring Hill Corrections Facility. “Corrections told the woman that she was moved to isolation ‘for her own safety.’”

“23-hour lockdown, where prisoners are isolated from human contact for extended periods of time, is known overseas as solitary confinement. The United Nations has categorised this kind of treatment as torture.”

“Since being placed in solitary she has been effectively cut off from all other inmates. For the brief moments when she is allowed out of her cell, she is not allowed to spend time with others.”

“She said that if she is not moved out of isolation soon, she will end up leaving in a body bag.”

“Isolation is a serious threat to the safety of this prisoner and all other prisoners,” says Rākete.

Rākete says No Pride in Prisons chose to take action on the basis of the woman’s dire conditions.

“We demand the immediate transfer of this woman out of solitary confinement. I am very concerned for her safety and fear for her life if she is not moved as soon as possible.”

No Pride in Prisons says all the international evidence shows that solitary confinement and isolation leads to poor outcomes for prisoners and society. “People who are put in solitary confinement come out scarred.”

“People placed in solitary are more likely to attempt suicide, experience psychosis, experience PTSD on release, and are less prepared to reintegrate into society upon release.”

“There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for solitary confinement to be used as either punishment or for safety. No Pride in Prisons is calling on Corrections to stop torturing prisoners and to end the use of isolation units.”

The organisation will be holding three pickets across the country at 12:00pm to put pressure on the Department of Corrections to release the woman from solitary confinement and to end the practice of isolation.

In Auckland, No Pride in Prisons will picket the Northern Regional Office of the Department of Corrections. Organisers are also planning pickets outside the Lower North Regional Office in Wellington Central, as well as outside the Dunedin Central Community Corrections office.

ENDS

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