National turns up heat over prisons

A Government minister yesterday cited building regulations in defending the installation of underfloor heating in newly built prisons.

Mita Ririnui, the Associate Corrections Minister, was responding in Parliament to renewed National Party attacks on the prison heating issue.

National law and order spokesman Simon Power said the new Northland, Auckland Women's, Springhill and Otago jail had underfloor heating in each cell, yet a recent survey found 96 per cent of New Zealand homes did not have such heating.

But Mr Ririnui defended the expenditure, saying the current building code required an adequate interior temperature of no less than 16C.

So why was it needed in Northland, Mr Power asked, when the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research said the region had a mean daily temperature of 16C over the past 12 months.

Mr Ririnui replied that while mostly warmer, "there are times when it's quite chilly in the north".

He said it was not new to have underfloor heating in bathrooms of public buildings.

Auckland City Hospital and Mental Health Unit, a large number of retirement homes and childcare facilities and universities in Auckland and Canterbury also had underfloor heating.

This was often used in public buildings because it was the most cost-efficient means of heating, Mr Ririnui said.

But Mr Power kept up his questioning, wondering how crime victims felt about offenders being warmer in their cells than many victims would be in their own homes. "Is he familiar with the radical notion that prison is intended to act as a deterrent to criminals?"

Mr Ririnui said the Government was sympathetic to victims.

- NZPA