Confidence In Staff At Mount Eden (Press, 15 August 1984)
This is a Generative AI summary of this newspaper article. It may contain errors or omissions. Please note that the language in the summary is reflective of the original article and the societal attitudes of the time in which it was written.
Summary: Confidence In Staff At Mount Eden (Press, 15 August 1984)
On 15 August 1984, the Secretary for Justice, Mr Jim Callahan, publicly defended the staff at Mount Eden prison in response to severe allegations of brutality and psychological torture made by an unnamed former officer. The ex-officer claimed that there were incidents of homosexual rapes, physical assaults by guards, and corruption within the prison, which were reported to an Auckland newspaper. Callahan stated that if the allegations were indeed true and could be substantiated, they should have been raised with the department earlier. He mentioned that the allegations could still be presented in an ongoing inquiry led by a District Court judge investigating the treatment of remand inmates and the conditions in such facilities. Callahan questioned the credibility of the accuser due to the lack of evidence supporting the serious claims, emphasising that it was inappropriate to label New Zealand's justice system as corrupt based solely on unsupported allegations. He defended the integrity and humanitarian approach of prison officers, expressing his confidence in the staff at Mount Eden. The former officer who came forward disclosed a disturbing account from his three years at Mount Eden in the late 1970s, detailing how fellow guards allegedly abused a convicted sex offender through nightly beatings using rolled-up wet towels and ropes to coerce confessions from him. In a separate but related incident at the prison, it was reported that a prisoner would be transferred due to a discovered assassination plot against him by other inmates. The planned attack, which involved three inmates intent on carrying out a knife assault, was motivated by a dispute over money. The targeted inmate, aged 26, is currently serving a one-year sentence for multiple offences, including burglary and drug-related crimes. The prison officials received this intelligence and were investigating the death threat.
Important Information
The text on this page is created, in the most part, using Generative AI and so may contain errors or omissions. It is supplied to you without guarantee or warranty of correctness. If you find an error or would like to make a content suggestion please get in contact
The text on this page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 New Zealand