New Zealand : Serco failure won't end privatisation

A damning report on Serco’s management of Mt Eden Correctional Facility will not spell the end of privately run prisons or further contracts for Serco, the Government says.

Prime Minister John Key and Corrections Minister Judith Collins reiterated today that the British-based company’s failings at the jail - which were laid bare today in a long-awaited report by the chief inspector - did not reflect badly on all privatised prisons.

Serco’s 25-year contract to run another prison at Wiri in South Auckland will not be affected and the Government could not rule out rehiring Serco to run the Mt Eden jail again in future.

“I don’t think you can say simply because one contractor has done a bad job somewhere you should end it,” Key told reporters in Christchurch.

“Philosophically, I think there’s a place both for private and public prisons and they hold each other to account.”

Collins highlighted the chief inspector Andy Fitzharris’ finding that violence had been observed at the Mt Eden jail before Serco took over, in 2009.

“These fights clubs… were being run by the same prisoners who did the same when Corrections ran Mt Eden,” she said.

As part of his investigation, Fitzharris also looked at eight publicly-run prisons but found no evidence of the organised fighting which was witnessed at Mt Eden.

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