Reviewing policy and practice
Developing the correctional system for the 21st century in New Zealand: the roles and work of monitoring mechanisms, civil society and marginalised knowledge
Abstract
The extreme imbalance in power between staff and prisoners means that the potential for prisoners or detainees to be subjected to cruel, degrading, inhuman treatment or punishment or torture is a factor that needs consistently to be acknowledged and guarded against.
Part One: The work of the Inspector of Corrections (pp. 4-10) reports on the work
done by the Inspector and, drawing on Corrections’ published reports for the years
2009-2013 about the Inspector’s work, raises a number of issues about correctional
practices. It compares the Inspector’s modes of operation with HM Inspector of
Prisons in England, foregrounding issues of independence, organisational
transparency and accountability.
Part Two: OPCAT and Monitoring New Zealand’s Penal System (pp. 10-15) centres
on the National Preventive Mechanism’s monitoring and educative work in prisons
under the UN’s Optional Protocol on the Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT). The discussion reviews
and comments on the NPM’s published reports between 2009-2013 about that work.
Part Three: Engaging with civil society. Shifting relations of power/knowledge, the
‘democracy to come’ and systemic change (pp. 15-19) centres the need for public
agencies (including Corrections) to engage with well-informed members of civil society to address better complex issues. Such collaborative relationships require profound changes in organisational practices and assumptions if the objective of enabling new perspectives, policies and practices to emerge is to be achieved.
Keywords OPCAT, New Zealand, monitoring, human rights, prison, collaboration with civil society