BLOG: Double bunking
The item of news that has caught my eye and made me catch my breath in the last week or so is the announcement by the Corrections Department that they are spending a sizable amount of money on converting prison cells over to a double-bunking system. The system is obviously focused on saving money when housing a rising prison population, and on making sure that prison is no publically funded holiday for offenders.
Double-bunking will see accommodation designed for one person re-fitted to take two inmates, and the idea makes me very nervous and raises a whole lot of questions in my mind.
Are the planned savings aimed at cutting building costs or does the Ministry of Corrections plan to save money on staffing? Currently in most NZ prison inmates are kept in lock-down for up to 14 hours a day. Lock-down is when prison inmates are kept in their cells, unable to access communal areas.
The hours spent in lock-down increased under Labour when the then Minister discovered that staffing shortages meant that prison officers were developing an over-time culture, that he wanted to nip in the bud.
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