Tony Wall05:00, May 31 2021
MARK TAYLOR / STUFF
Rachel Edge says her son, Travis, did four months in solitary confinement at Auckland South Corrections Facility.
Four years ago, an international report slammed New Zealand’s over-use of solitary confinement in prisons. Since Labour came to power, the practice has only increased, driving some to despair. National Correspondent Tony Wall and data journalist Felippe Rodrigues investigate. Travis Edge is a gang member who’s been in and out of prison most of his adult life. “My son’s a little s.,” says his mother, registered nurse Rachel Edge. “I’ve rung the police on him before, when he’s deserved it. He’s a little s., but he’s my little s., and when I see injustice being done, I fight like a pitbull.”
Warning: This story discusses violence, rape, depression and suicide.
Auckland Women s Prison treated inmates in a degrading, cruel and inhumane manner in a concerted effort to break their spirit, according to a stinging ruling from a district court judge.
Mihi Bassett was gassed in her cell, Manukau District Court Judge David McNaughton said.
Photo: RNZ/Vinay Ranchhod
Corrections broke its own rules and regulations multiple times in its treatment of Mihi Bassett and Karma Cripps, who were gassed in their cells and forced to perform a humiliating ritual to be fed, Manukau District Court Judge David McNaughton says.
His ruling also confirms the women had to remove their underwear in front of male guards in order to get clean pairs and were, at times, denied toiletries and sanitary products