I can’t forget about an incident which occured in a NZ prison while I was locked up. A man who was applying for fellow inmates criminal histories for those inmates under the New Zealand Official Information Act – was stopped in his tracks. What he was doing was completely legal and was helping the men involved.
A screw went into his cell when he was on a work party and planted a “fit” (syringe and needle for injecting drugs) in the vent at the rear of his cell. When the inmate returned from the work party, a surprise inspection was carried out by the screws and the fit was found. He was immediately charged.
I never found out whose orders this was done on but it was no surprise as the rest of the wing knew about it in advance. Seems M was not popular! No one said anything and he was brought up on charge – however, the Visiting Justice did not believe it so he was warned not to carry on helping prisoners get their sensitive information. It’s shocking how easy it was to set up an innocent man but then that’s the New Zealand “justice” system for you.
One can only hope this disgraceful rape of human and prisoner’s rights has improved since 1994!
Ed…
