Disaster risk reduction and emergency management in prison: A scoping study from New Zealand

Abstract

This research note provides insights on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and emergency management in New Zealand prisons. It draws upon a scoping study that explores the exposure of prisons and identifies vulnerabilities and capacities of prisoners. This study also documents policies and practices for DRR and emergency management. It reveals that increasing awareness at the national level and improved DRR policies and emergency management initiatives may still prove insufficient to deal with increasing exposure and the particular vulnerability of a quickly growing number of inmates. The intrinsic capacities of these inmates also remain untapped. This research note further highlights the critical lack of collaboration between stakeholders of prison management, DRR and emergency management in New Zealand.

Prison Disaster Factors: A Case Study of Taipei Prison

“…The inherent abilities of these inmates have not been developed. They further highlighted the serious lack of communication in the implementation interface of prison management, disaster reduction, and emergency management in New Zealand [9]. Others proposed the fate of prisons and detainees in disasters in 2012, which attracted very limited attention from scholars and policymakers.…”

Prisoner Labor Throughout the Life Cycle of Disasters

“…Social vulnerability research of disaster risk reflects similar findings as research relating to risk of incarceration. Specifically, poor and minority populations are disproportionately represented among the incarcerated (Goodman, Page, & Phelps, 2017; Le Dé & Gaillard, 2017; Lynch, 2010; Wakefield & Uggen, 2010; Western & Wildeman, 2009) and are also described as “socially vulnerable” to disproportionate disaster impacts and slower recoveries (Dyson, 2006; Elliott & Pais, 2006; Fothergill, Maestas, & Darlington, 1999; Fothergill & Peek, 2004). African Americans and Hispanic, in particular comprise more than half (57 percent) of the U.S. prison population even though they represent 29 percent of the total U.S. population (Sentencing Project, 2018).…”

“…One corrections textbook states that “Inmates, and employees, do not have the options available to free society to escape from fires and floods and storms.” Gaillard and Navizet (2012) noted that the social and geographic isolation associated with imprisonment in facilities hidden away from public scrutiny increases the vulnerability of prisoners to disaster impacts and potential mistreatment during disasters, as the broader public remains unaware of prisoner experiences. Additionally, prison populations do not garner a great deal of sympathy from the greater public (Le Dé & Gaillard, 2017; McCullough, 2006). Even in emergency management, there is a greater concern for protecting the public from inmates, than protecting inmates in an emergency or disaster (Purdum, 2019; Schwartz & Barry 2005).…”

“…This discussion highlights that incarceration and social vulnerability to disaster similarly account for racial and economic stratification in society. Yet, the academic literature, beyond legal scholarship, has not fully interrogated the theoretical linkages between incarceration and disaster vulnerability (Le Dé & Gaillard, 2017; Purdum, 2019). While institutional planning for inmate safety in emergencies is crucially important, a broader theoretical focus on vulnerability of inmates—as both members of socially vulnerable populations prior to incarceration and the nature of incarceration itself—highlight other issues and research questions.…”

“…Le Dé and Gaillard (2017) found that emergency management personnel see inmates in New Zealand as a capacity to meet disaster needs. Inmates, they argued, “possess capacities or intrinsic knowledge, skills and resources used to deal with both hazards and disasters” (2017: 378).…”