Corrections

I have another idea for Crusher - Nutraloaf.

from Boing Boing

The authorities at Cook County Jail have a new way to punish unruly inmates: Nutraloaf, a dense block of food-like stuff that meets the requirements of providing prisoners with daily calorie intake and nutrients, but deprives them of enjoyment. Chicago magazine sent food critic Jeff Ruby out to try it. He reports:

Nutraloaf

An employee from Aramark Correctional Services–a branch of the Philadelphia-based company that also provides fare for college dorms and NFL stadiums–presented me a Styrofoam container sagging with a blunt ginger-toned mass roughly the size of a calzone and with the appearance of a neglected fruitcake. It had nothing else in common with either.

The mushy, disturbingly uniform innards recalled the thick, pulpy aftermath of something you dissected in biology class: so intrinsically disagreeable that my throat nearly closed up reflexively. But the funny thing about Nutraloaf is the taste. It’s not awful, nor is it especially good. I kept trying to detect any individual element–carrot? egg?–and failing. Nutraloaf tastes blank, as though someone physically removed all hints of flavor.

Turns out, there’s a pretty interesting debate going on right now as to whether Nutraloaf—and similar dishes at other correctional facilities—falls under “cruel and unusual punishment”. So far, Ruby writes, all the lawsuits brought against excessively bland food have failed.

I’m thinking that this should be standard fair not a punishment. Nutritional, yet bland. Maybe at Christmas they can have gravy with it…..nah!

The most effective minister in the National government would have to be Judith Collins.

Everything she has said she would deliver she has, including two heads on a plate for each of her departments.

First Howard Broad announced his retirement, just in the nick of time, so he could put his spin on getting the arse by the Minister and now Barry Matthews takes one in the chook as well.

Corrections Department boss Barry Matthews is set to retire at the end of the year.

The department began advertising yesterday for a new chief executive, the Dominion Post reported.

Matthews came under fire early last year following a report into the department’s handling of the parole system.

Corrections Minister Judith Collins demanded accountability over the failures, reported by the Auditor-General Kevin Brady, and refused to say she had confidence in Matthews.

A spokeswoman for the department said he would step down “by the end of the year”.

Judith Collins is a patient and careful hunter of the common or garden variety of the Vacuus Civilis Vernula.
I think she needs to conduct training for the other ministers in hunting the elusive Vacuus Civilis Vernula.

Money wasting tenders on Maori

Cactus Kate has a good post on the sorry excuse that are Bro-tocracy and their leadership.

Maori have become the basket cases of the South Pacific developed countries. Some 16.4% are unemployed (doesn’t count the DPB and sickness beneficiaries). Despite resources over the years that have been showered up on them over any other racial group.

I put it down to all those years of hands up, subsidies for employing Maori and educational preferential treatment and Maori leaders have STILL no answer for their problem. That’s right, the Maori Party are in Government. They have been for two years. Treaty claims have been settled, the Iwi have the money to create their own jobs. They have their own resources to manage and attribute Maori employment to. Still nothing positive to show.

Maori unemployment is Pita’s problem.
Maori disgraceful domestic violence statistics are Pita’s problem.
Maori’s disgraceful child abuse statistics are Pita’s problem.
Maori crime statistics are Pita’s problem.

You want tino rangitiratanga, your own named race-based political party, you want to be allowed self-governance and control, you want the rest of New Zealand to butt out and leave you alone – then you have to own your own problems.

Continually Pita seems to own nothing, be responsible for nothing.

Which brings me to a discussion that a few of us had last night while sipping Chili Tequilas. I received the nightly email from GETS and saw the Tenders as outlined above. This got the more entrepreneurial amongst us thinking. Perhaps the Blogger’s Union should set-up a consulting firm and start applying for some of these Tenders. If troughers advocates like Shane Bradbrook can make a considerably good living from not stopping a single person smoking, then we sure as hell can provide even better analysis for the same money. It isn’t like the bar is very high, so we should be able to create a rather large trough with which to fund our blogging. The team thus far even includes some very well educated individuals, a Doctorate, a couple of law degrees, architecture qualifications plus general roust-about abilities. Certainly there was more intellectual clout around the bar table alst night than in any of the current Maori troughing advocacy groups out there.

All we need now is a group set of keffiyah so we look cool as we take photos of ourselves swanning around all the tourist hotspots that miraculously have necessary conferences that cover areas of our expertise.

Anway back to the two tenders at hand. Let’s look at them one at a time.

Evaluation of the Department of Corrections’ partnership relationships with Maori

An evaluation of partnerships between Maori and the Department of Corrections has been approved as part of the Department’s 2010-11 research and evaluation work programme.

The Department currently has three different types of partnership relationships with Māori groups. This evaluation is intended to analyse the current processes, systems, and contract arrangements in order to inform the Department about the effectiveness of those partnership relationships, and to offer insights which will inform the on-going improvements of these relationships.

Individuals and organisations interested in undertaking this evaluation are invited to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI).

Now I reckon we can crowdsource this EOI. You can download/view the EOI document from here. This is money for jam. We also need to vreate a glossary of appropriate terms to use, such as; paradigm, step-change, partnership etc.

A quick look at the EOI document shows an alarming disconnect (note buzzword) between reality and the Department of Correction. Quite simply this sort of nonsense isn’t going to help Maori.

Strong partnerships are key to reducing Māori re-offending and are one of the ways that the Department addresses its vision to succeed for Māori offenders. The Department has pledged to expand its work with Māori groups to support and improve the work it does to reduce re-offending by Māori. It will do this by acknowledging and accessing hapū and iwi expertise and leadership to better support Māori offender pathways out of crime; by acknowledging and using the strengths of offenders, stakeholders and communities; and by incorporating the Māori world view to diminish the perceived connection between offending and being Māori.

Utter tosh. The partnership between Maori and the Department of Corrections can be easily described thus:

“Maori are convicted and represent a significant percentage over and above their population footprint because they are a criminal race and refuse to adhere to the rule of law. The Department of Corrections forms a partnership with Maori when they become incarcerated for their continued and repeated offending. The relationship is one of Guard/Prisoner. The Department keeps the criminal Maori of the street in accordance with the law and criminal Maori behaves him/herself in prison or the lag gets harder.”

See this is money for jam, perhaps it could even be called something suitably quango-ish….like Truth Based Evidential Consulting. However the Corrections Departments delusions are somewhat grander than that.

Significant Relationships

Relationships that are signed by the Minister for iwi whose structures, history and/or enabling legislation mean that they already have existing relationships with Government at the most senior levels. This type of relationship is not actively sought by the Department but can be necessary in particular circumstances.

I think this is translated into “Relationships that are signed by the Minister for iwi with choice troughing records relationships with Government at the most senior levels. This type of relationship is not actively sought by the Department but we have to feed the pros quite regularly or they get real uppity.”

Anyway, I digress:

The Project:

The Department invites individuals and organisations to express their interest in carrying out an evaluation of the Department’s Kaitiaki role and its partnerships with Māori more generally (the Project).

The purpose of this Project is to assist the Department to make decisions about what kind of partnership relationship/s between the Department and Māori are most desirable for both parties, moving forward. As such, the Project will report on the level of success of the various partnership relationships, from the perspective of all stakeholders.

I think that is pretty straight-forward. The Department wants to outsource its thinking to some other, probably equally stupid, organisation because it is all too hard to for themselves. I’m struggling to think reason as to why Barry Matthews should even bother retaining the the Department’s Strategy, Policy and Planning (SPP) group administrators. Considerable savings could be had by analysing the email groups associated with that sub-department and sacking the lot for such a retarded EOI, and presumably big trough bag of loot to write mumbo-jumbo that isn’t even needed. This is why the bill for external policy consultants is so f*cking massive.

Now onto the more retarded Tender.

Evaluation of the Department of Corrections’ partnership relationships with Maori

Māori over-representation in the offender population is a long-standing issue of concern for the Department. Lack of progress in reducing levels of over-representation suggests a need to explore different approaches to rehabilitation. This research aims to build a knowledge base of interventions, initiatives and approaches that have been successfully used with Māori to address a range of problematic behaviours. Such an approach will look beyond just crime reduction schemes and the correctional/justice sphere, to a range of other domains where interventions have proven to be transformative for Māori. This could include health, education, or community driven programmes and services, as well as work carried out amongst other indigenous populations. The Department is looking for original thinking that goes beyond the current approaches, and seeks to look at the intervention literature using ‘fresh eyes’.

Knock me down with a feather. This project should be very short indeed, maybe about fice minutes in duration, because I bet there isn’t a single document in existence, except the letter from some Dutch guy offering to solve the “Maori problem” at a guinea a head, that provides an insight to what works to change offending behaviours by Maori.

The short answer is nothing works for Maori. In fact nothing maori works. Just look at the troughing advocacy in Maori Stop Smoking areas. millions of dollars have been spent, and they want more, and not a single person has been helped to stop smoking. They often call, quietly mind, don’t want to lose the trough, for a ban on smoking. But it always comes with the hand out for money.

If money was the answer to solving Maori problems, then they’d all be solved. Never before in the history of the world has so much money been poured into an indigenous race with such poor outcomes. If money is the answer then it must have been a bloody stupid question. But of course everyone knows what that iwi isn’t a word, it’s an acronym. I Want It.

If I was the Minister of Corrections I’d be very unhappy about such silly tenders being put out. It shows the absolutely lightweight thinking the taxpayers are unfortunately are having to pay for. It really does make the case, in those two tenders alone for the complete outsourcing of all prisons, and then paring down the Department to a shadow of its former self.

I spied this in the inbox tonight.

Tenderwatch - Don't do it Judith

I thought Barry Matthews was smarter than this. He obviously has been working too hard to have noticed the awful trouble ex-ministers and mayors have been getting themselves into with purchasing cards and transaction management systems.

He best have a re-think over this I feel. Quickly before Judith Collins finds out what he is up to.

Prisoners with alcohol and drug addictions have to deal with it. We don’t offer alcohol to prisoners with alcohol addictions or P to prisoners with methamphetamine addictions. This is a prison, it’s not a home.

Judith Collins

The hand-wringiners are out in force.

A comprehensive cessation programme must be available to prisoners if smoking is banned in jails, the Rethinking Crime and Punishment group says.

The Government is reportedly looking at making prisons smokefree from next year, with Corrections Minister Judith Collins expected to make an announcement early this week.

The Corrections Department is concerned taxpayers could be liable for legal action from prison officers exposed to inmates’ second-hand smoke and also the potential threat of lawsuits from nonsmoking prisoners, bunking with prisoners who do smoke.

Corrections Association president Beven Hanlon told Radio New Zealand prisoners did not like change.

“People coming off nicotine can be very unpredictable, can be very anxious, aggressive and we’re going to have a large part of our prison population going through that and we’re (prison officers) going to have to manage them,” he said.

You can’t get a more comprehensive cessation programme than cold-turkey. Once the crim enters the doors of the prison, they stop smoking, and they stop for the entire stretch. My bet is that troughers like Shane Bradbrook will be lining up to line their own pocket to provide smoking cessation programmes to criminals in jail. They are not needed. Cold Turkey will stop them smoking for sure.

Implementation is simple too. Announce a date when smoking ceases, enforce it, end of implementation  programme.

I don’t like smoking, well actually I do, but the health issues mean I don’t smoke. Still a fine cuban cigar is something to be savoured.

For me smoking has always been a personal choice issue. However our governments over the years have deemed tobacco to be evil and that people shouldn’t smoke. Despite all the evidence about the negative health effects there are people who still choose to smoke. The government doesn’t want them to smoke but no politician, until today, has ever had the gumption to ban tobacco outright.

Smoking will be banned in all prisons from next year, the Herald on Sunday has learned.

Corrections minister Judith Collins is expected to announce this week that a 12-month preparation plan will be rolled out that should see all prisons go smoke-free by July next year.

Department of Corrections bosses found taxpayers could be liable for lawsuits from prison guards exposed to inmates’ second-hand smoke.

The potential threat of legal action was heightened after the Government’s decision to “double bunk” inmates in a single cell, raising the possibility of non-smoking prisoners suing the Government for being housed with smoking inmates.

There goes another cushy reason for life-time criminals to want to be banged up. No more baccy, and their health improves along with it so they get to feel the effects of being banging up a whole lot better.

The dangers of legal action were found after Collins instructed Corrections staff to investigate a ban, and its success rates overseas.

They found tobacco was used as currency inside prison and was the cause of disputes. Further reasons for the ban included the use of cigarette lighters and matches to melt plastic into which blades could be embedded, turning cell possessions into weapons.

Anti-smoking Maori Party MP Hone Harawira supported the move but warned a total ban could lead to an outbreak of violence among prisoners.

Hone Harawira is at least consistent in his approach to tobacco, but the threat of violence in prisons should be no barrier to making them smoke-free.

To my mind this is a move long overdue. If our veterans aren’t allowed to smoke in the RSA then why should criminals be allowed to smoke in prisons. Judith Collins is clearly a politician of her own personal convictions, and she will fight tooth and nail for things she believes in rather than the politically expedient. Oh that other politicians would have a spine such as hers.

I’d say he was trying to enlarge the circle of his friends.

Gavin Stanger, 24, of East Wenatchee, Washington smuggled the following into jail, in his rectum, all at once: a green cigarette lighter, cigarette rolling papers, a golf-ball size bag of tobacco, a bottle of tattoo ink, eight tattoo needles, a one-inch-long smoking pipe and a small bag of suspected marijuana. From Wenatchee World:

(Jail administrator Phil Stanley) said no contraband was found on a pat-down search or on a later strip search.
About 90 minutes later, with Stanger in a single holding jail, a jailer found a plastic bag and duct tape floating in the cell’s toilet. After being questioned by jailers, Stanger surrendered the contraband.

The mother of a slain prison guard is furious that the inmate accused of killing him has been granted name suppression.

United States-born Jason Palmer, 33, was six months into the job when he was allegedly punched to the floor by a high-risk prisoner at Waikato’s medium-security Spring Hill Prison in May. The father-of-two suffered irreversible brain damage and later died.

Speaking from the United States, Ada Palmer slammed the New Zealand judiciary for giving her son’s accused killer anonymity.

“Shhhhhh. His name is suppressed so let’s not talk about it right?” she said. “I do not know his name yet [my son is dead].

“Is he getting his tea served in a timely manner? Are all his needs being met? I would not want his days to be disrupted or, God forbid, his life!”

It is an outrage that a convicted criminal is hiding while he is still in prison. There is absolutely no reason for his name suppression.

All the cons know who he is, I know who he is, it took me a phone call and a wait of 15 minutes. Meanwhile the little shit who did it gets what he wanted, transferred to his new gang’s jail, a patch, and looked after by the gang that ordered the hit. Except the authorities won’t tell you that. They are just putting their heads in the sand and calling this a terrible accident.

Its bullshit and the excuses are about as effective as a half sucked throatie.

Can someone please point Mrs Palmer to some Interesting Names?