Fri 21 Oct 2016 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Emmy Rākete of protest group No Pride in Prisons says hiring LGBTI prison officers will not change “the fundamental violence” prison inflicts on LGBTI people and believes to do so there needs to be opposition of the prison expansion and “the use of rainbow flags to pinkwash the violence of incarceration.” Rākete has responded to the call from Corrections for members of the LGBTI community to apply for Prison Officer positions. She says “First of all, while Corrections might be able to be nice to queers they employ, our siblings being held prisoner are in awful conditions. “One woman No Pride in Prisons advocates for has been wearing the same bra for 11 months because the prison won't provide her with them and she can't buy them from the 'male' prison's canteen. The very basic needs of our siblings aren't being met, and this is reflected in Corrections' failure to implement either LGBTI training for staff or a specific transgender action plan, both of which it promised to secure it's position in Auckland Pride.” In July this year, No Pride in Prisons member Ti Lamusse obtained information under the Official Information Act that confirmed Corrections at the time had not implemented LGBTI specific training for staff, with topics about transgender prisoners among the overall training programme. “For example, in our Effective Working Relationships workshop, discussion is often raised as to the best approach to maintain and enhance a suitable working relationship with a transgender prisoner,” wrote Acting Debuty Chief Executive of Corporate Services, Rachel Leota. Rākete says “The reality is that gay prison guards won't change the fundamental violence which prisons are inflicting on our family. We need to do better for them than manicuring the hands which lock them in cages. “Queer participation in the prison system does nothing to alleviate the suffering which that system causes. If you want our queer siblings to suffer less, we need to free them from ever being incarcerated. That means opposing the expansion of the prison system, opposing the construction of a new prison, opposing the use of rainbow flags to pink-wash the violence of incarceration.” No Pride in Prisons has organised a free public talk from lawyer, scholar and prison abolitionist Moana Jackson, who will be speaking on ‘Prisons, Race and Abolition’. “It's grotesque that Corrections are trying to pose themselves as friends to our community when trans women have had to have staff smuggle in bras for them because they have no other way of obtaining them,” says Rākete, “We have fundamental needs which the department has systematically failed to meet, and they are never going to be able to. Only prison abolition is going to do that.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 21st October 2016 - 4:27pm