Editorial: Our prisons should not be privatised

Corrections Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga made the announcement regarding Auckland's Mt Eden Correctional Facility yesterday. Photo / NZME.

The Department of Corrections has done the right thing in stepping in and taking over private contractor Serco's management of Mt Eden Correctional Facility.

Corrections Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga made the announcement yesterday, saying a management team would take over the day-to-day running of the prison from Monday "for the immediate future".

Serco's staff would remain on site, but a Corrections Department Prison Director and their team would oversee the prison.

Serco's management of the prison was brought into question after videos emerged of prisoners fighting and using drugs in their cells. Allegations have also been made in Parliament about mistreatment of prisoners.

Most people expect prisons to be rather tough places and for violence to occur at times, but the most shocking thing about the footage was it clearly showed that the inmates were running the prison.

It must be tough being a prison officer at the best of times, but clearly there are simply not enough guards keeping an eye on the prisoners at Mt Eden.

The whole debacle is not a very good look for the government in its attempt to privatise prisons.

Some people may say that it serves prisoners right if prisons are in a shambolic state - they should not have committed the crimes that put them there in the first place. That is probably not a helpful attitude to have.

Prisons are a necessary evil, but they still should be humane and maintain a strict level of discipline.

Unfortunately there is a fundamental problem with privatising an institution like a prison. Government departments exist to provide services for the country, while private companies exist to make money.

A company that does not make money goes out of business very soon.

The way to make money is to keep the costs down and if you cut the cost of running a prison too much, you get chaos.

That is what has happened at Mt Eden and it could happen elsewhere as well.

The government needs to take the facility over permanently and admit that privatisation was an expensive mistake.