Activist group No Pride in Prisons says they agree with the Auckland Pride board “that Corrections has made no progress on transgender rights” and as of today the group are opening up their membership to all members of society regardless of their sexuality or gender identity. The group have responded to the announcement that Corrections have had their application to march in the Pride Parade declined as the Board believe they have not made sufficient progress regarding the treatment of trans prisoners. Spokesperson Emmy Rākete says “Just a few months ago, members of No Pride in Prisons were forced to occupy a Corrections office demanding the removal of a transgender woman from solitary confinement. She had been placed there because Corrections still, a year on from when they made the promise, has not produced a plan to protect the safety of transgender prisoners. This was the bare minimum asked of it, and the department has dragged its feet and still arrogantly demanded a place in Pride.” Rākete is referring to discussions last year before the Pride Parade in which Corrections agreed to work with the LGBTI community on the way the NZ prison system treats transgender prisoners as a stipulation of being allowed to march in the 2016 parade. “As the recent Ombudsmen’s reports showed, conditions in prison are deplorable. Transgender prisoners experience some of the worst excesses of this neglect,” she says. “No Pride in Prisons advocates have had to buy bras for transgender women and give them to these prisoners because Corrections did not allow women in men’s prison to buy appropriate undergarments. Transgender prisoners can go months without seeing endocrinologists, and some have been on insufficient hormone regimens which may expose them to risk of bone disease. These are breaches of the fundamental human rights which even prisoners are still owed.” “Corrections has no place representing itself in a pride parade as long as these human rights abuses continue.” No Pride in Prisons now refer to themselves as “a prison abolitionist group based in Aotearoa, advocating for incarcerated people and the end of prisons” and Rākete says that the group stresses that harm is done not only to transgender prisoners but to every single person subjected to the prison system. “The Ombudsmen’s reports revealed widespread and systematic abuse, sexual violence, and medical neglect. These reports have revealed a foundational violence in the prisons which cannot be reformed,” she says. “While we see this as an important symbolic victory for those fighting for justice, material changes are still desperately needed for those suffering the worst of the prison system’s violence. “We hope Corrections will take this rebuke as a wake-up call, and implement meaningful policy changes to improve conditions in its facilities.” NPIP believe that Corrections have been unwilling to implement meaning policy changes and that this is evidence that prisons “are stuck in place, incapable of being reformed”. Rākete says the group “remains as committed as ever to the unqualified abolition of prisons in Aotearoa, and the implementation of a system for preventing and addressing social harm without destroying lives and communities. “This means fighting for the rights and dignity of all prisoners, not only queer and trans prisoners.” From today, membership in No Pride in Prisons is open and anybody, regardless of identity, who agrees with their kaupapa is welcome to join. The group have organised a 10,000 Too Many march to protest the rising prison population on 11 February.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 1st February 2017 - 3:14pm