The second inmate escape from a prison working party in three weeks has Corrections Minister Judith Collins demanding answers from her department.
Police have urged the public not to approach Storm Hughes, 33, who fled from a work party outside the Springhill Prison in north Waikato yesterday.
Hughes had a "significant history" of violence in Australia, police said.
His escape came three weeks after Arai Hema fled from an outside work party at Auckland Prison at Paremoremo on January 21. Hema remains at large.
Mrs Collins said in Parliament yesterday the escapes were unacceptable.
"Not one escape is acceptable and that is why this minister is going to hold people to account for their actions and inactions," she said.
"I am confident that the department understands that my expectations are significantly higher than those of the previous minister."
That is indeed music to our ears, although time will tell whether Mrs Collins has any more success than her predecessor. We do hope however that the CEO of Corrections, Barry "Teflon" Matthews is aware of the Minister's pronouncement. Having presided over a department where there was widespread corruption, endless cost overruns, and with at least two deaths directly as a result of systemic failures by Corrections, it beggars belief that Matthews has remained untouchable. Keeping Stock hopes that Mrs Collin's first move is to confiscate Matthews' "Get Out of Jail Free" card, and ensure that her new standards of accountability start at the top.
2 comments:
Well said - Mathews should have been sacked a cuple of years ago.
Quite right pdm - how he survived the Karl Kuchenbecker and Liam Ashley murders is one of life's mysteries. I seem to remember from the time that the then-government thought it was better to keep him on to make changes rather than cut him loose. That, from where I sit, was the Get Out of Jail Free card I referred to in the main post.
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