Private prisons and the management of scandal

Abstract

In 2009, the Corrections (Contract Management of Prisons) Amendment Act re-implemented prison privatisation in New Zealand (NZ). Subsequently, ‘Mt Eden’, a public prison, was contracted to Serco and a second prison, ‘Wiri’, was built under contract to the same company. Despite glowing performance reports, Serco’s reputation was significantly damaged when cell-phone video capturing Mt Eden prisoners engaged in fights, in full view of prison officers and CCTV, was uploaded to YouTube in July 2015. An unprecedented stream of media revelations about prisoner mistreatment, corruption and serious human rights violations followed, prompting the Department of Corrections to seize control of the prison. This article examines the potential of this human rights based scandal to challenge the legitimacy of private prisons in NZ. Where previously, prison legitimacy largely revolved around representations of managerialism, security and the maintenance of austere conditions, the revelations at Mt Eden highlighted a moment when penal legitimacy fractured for being too severe and non-humanitarian. Drawing upon analysis of media articles (n = 648) over seven years (2009–2016) from three major sources (the New Zealand Herald, Stuff News and Radio NZ), the article demonstrates how journalists quickly reverted to traditional discursive frames on imprisonment. Representing the crisis as an unfortunate aberration that could be managed through government controls, mainstream media helped to consolidate and ultimately strengthen the legitimacy of the prison in NZ.

History of privatized corrections

“…At the end of GEO's initial contract, therefore, the prison became part of the public‐sector system. Then, in 2008, the incoming Conservative Government introduced the Corrections (Contract Management of Prisons) Amendment Act 2009 , allowing competitive tendering and private‐sector operation of prisons (Boyle & Stanley, ; Chan, ; Kenter & Prior, ). Mount Eden prison was put out for tender again.…”

“…Mount Eden prison was put out for tender again. This time Serco was successful, and the new contract was packaged into a larger contract for the Mount Eden Correctional Facility in 2012 (Boyle & Stanley, ; Mason, ).…”

“…The operation of Mount Eden was not smooth because of allegations of officer‐sanctioned fight clubs , brutal prisoner initiations, and prisoner suicides damaging the prison's reputation for high quality and safe service delivery (Boyle & Stanley, ). The impact of poor service delivery peaked in 2017, and the then prime minister announced that Serco's operational contract would not be renewed.…”

Simplifying Reality: The Media’s Portrayal of the Private Prison Debate

“…Alongside these accounts have been efforts by scholars to examine how the media portray crime and justice issues (Blakely & Bumphus, 2005b; Boyle & Stanley, 2019; Burkhardt, 2014; Dixon & Williams, 2014; Pollak & Kubrin, 2007). A central finding of this work has been that the media frequently oversimplify dimensions that may bear on discussions about policies aimed at crime, criminal justice, and corrections (see generally, Carlyle et al, 2008; Chermak, 1994; Dixon & Williams, 2014; Marsh, 1991; Pollak & Kubrin, 2007).…”

“…Burkhardt’s (2014) content analysis found that states that did not discuss privatization as a moral issue were more likely to use privatization, as compared with states that focused on the morality of the practice. A third exception is Boyle and Stanley’s (2019) analysis of New Zealand news articles published after a series of revelations about the mistreatment of individuals incarcerated at a private prison. They found that the topic that dominated news stories was the “economic and bureaucratic management of prisons”; fewer studies focused on politics, security, humanitarianism, or social or symbolic exclusion of incarcerated individuals (Boyle and Stanley, 2019, p. 74).…”