Human Rights and Prisons - Rethinking Crime and Punishment
Human Rights and Prisons - Rethinking Crime and Punishment
Human Rights and Prisons - Rethinking Crime and Punishment
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There are concerns about telephone availability. Prison telephones are<br />
run on a commercial basis, <strong>and</strong> there are insufficient telephones to<br />
cater for the numbers of prisoners (Ombudsmen‟s Office, 2005).<br />
Prisoners also demonstrate concern at the cost of basic provisions,<br />
such as pens, paper <strong>and</strong> phone calls.<br />
In exceptional circumstances, such as bereavement, prison responses<br />
can be unnecessarily ad hoc <strong>and</strong> contingent on the reactions of<br />
individual custodial staff members, who are not trained in grief support<br />
(Hendry, 2009).<br />
Families face a host of social <strong>and</strong> economic costs by having a member<br />
in prison. In general, families who have a member in prison are the<br />
most socially <strong>and</strong> economically vulnerable within society.<br />
Imprisonment exacerbates pre-existing situations of poverty, housing<br />
problems, social stigma <strong>and</strong> childcare problems (Christian et al, 2006;<br />
Codd, 2008; Kingi, 2009).<br />
For many children (although not all), the removal of a parent to prison<br />
can be a fundamentally negative experience, instigating numerous<br />
behavioural <strong>and</strong> emotional difficulties that begin to shape their lives.<br />
Evidence suggest that children may experience physical <strong>and</strong> mental<br />
health problems, can become withdrawn <strong>and</strong> secretive, angry or<br />
defiant, exhibit self-destructive behaviour, eating disorders, lowered<br />
self-esteem <strong>and</strong> declining educational performance (Codd, 2008; Kingi,<br />
1999; National Health Committee, 2008).<br />
PARS estimates that 20,000 children each year have a family member<br />
in prison. The 2003 Prison Census indicated that about 26% of male<br />
prisoners <strong>and</strong> 47% of female prisoners had dependent children before<br />
being incarcerated (Kingi, 2009). Preliminary Year One results from a<br />
three-year study on the children of prisoners in New Zeal<strong>and</strong> (Gordon,<br />
2009) has detailed that children are often living more than an hour‟s<br />
drive away from their imprisoned parent <strong>and</strong> that more than a third of<br />
studied prisoners with children (n=98) had not received visits from their<br />
children.<br />
<br />
There are issues about the „family-focused‟ nature of prisons. While<br />
the organisation PARS does supply toys <strong>and</strong> books to some prisons,<br />
<strong>and</strong> have child activity teams in a couple of prisons, visiting areas do<br />
not often have adequate facilities for children or other family members.<br />
As the Ombudsmen‟s Office (2005:17) noted, many visiting areas „are<br />
anything but comfortable. Seating often consisted of four small plastic<br />
stools without backs, bolted to a low table <strong>and</strong> attached to the floor.<br />
We would not regard it as suitable for elderly or frail persons‟. Further,<br />
at some facilities, visitors had to share a long table, meaning that there<br />
was no privacy for conversations. Other concerns related to the<br />
dominance of „non-contact‟ visits for higher security prisoners; the use<br />
of disciplinary measures for prisoners who kissed children; comments<br />
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