Waikeria prison uprising: Amnesty International warns against use of force to end protests

By RNZ

Amnesty International has called on the Prison Minister to ensure that force is not used to end the stalemate at Waikeria Prison, where 16 inmates are entering a sixth day of protest.

The human rights group said de-escalation techniques should be used to end the protest.

He said protesters had already raised concerns about the mistreatment, and that the use of excessive force and withholding food and water would make matters worse.

Sixteen inmates are now on the sixth day of a protest that began Tuesday at the prison near Te Awamutu.

Major damage had been done to the facilities of the “upper jail”, following fires in several places during the protest.

Amnesty also wanted Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis to end what he described as “dehumanizing practices” in Waikeria and to launch an investigation into the state of the country’s prison system.

Relatives of the protesting men have told RNZ that the men are trying to raise awareness about conditions they describe as “inhumane,” such as brown drinking water, a lack of clean bedding and toilet paper, and cramped cells and overheated.

But Department of Corrections Incident Controller Jeanette Burns said the men’s actions were violent, causing significant damage to buildings and property, and that they were making weapons to use against staff.

An attempt had been made to negotiate their surrender, but the situation had not been resolved and they would only be provided with water when they surrendered, he said.

However, a former Waikeria inmate told RNZ that he feared that once the current protest was quelled, the long-term problems at the jail would not be addressed.

Billy McFarlane now runs the Puwhakamua High Risk Offenders Program in Rotorua.

He said that for some time unrest over prison conditions had been brewing across the country, and something had to give.

But he was worried about the men involved.

“Everyone will be charged, probably everyone will end up in maximum security, probably not everyone will be paroled.

“They are going to suffer the wrath of the system and then slowly, this whole problem will probably go back under the canvas.”

McFarlane said he remembers complaining about the same thing in the 1980s.

He felt that New Zealand prisons are not doing enough to rehabilitate prisoners or reintegrate them into society.

– RNZ