Tuesday, July 05, 2016

A rare occasion on which I agree with the Greens

Why, after so long, has a prison volunteer's gang membership become an issue?

Someone is feeding stuff to Sensible Sentencing. SST is threatening to reveal numbers of guards with gang connections as well. This will develop.

Sometimes I can agree with SST. But I probably hold a deeper conviction about rehabilitation and taking whatever effective measures possible to achieve it.

Ngapari Nui should be judged on his work in prisons - gang membership is not illegal.

4 comments:

Don W said...

Ngapari Nui is being judged unfairly.No one can change their past but if this guy is doing good work and helping those gang members to better their lives , what is wrong with that.My daughter lives next door to an older guy who is ex mongrel mob. He is a decent guy and is respected. People need to keep an open mind. Those that a so quick to condemn are making their judgments from afar, their ivory towers, what they see on TV. Perhaps they should go and see for themselves.

Lindsay Mitchell said...

Thank You Don. Now that Corrections are going to re-vet all prison volunteers AS A CONSEQUENCE, I might get banned for being an past ACT member! Gang members mature. There are a few guys who survive and learn and are quite special and Collins doesn't want to harness what they offer?? Backward. And other B words....

Don W said...

Hi Lindsay, the politicians don't live in the real world, they don't know the real world, too busy worrying about their popularity and looking after their own nests. Nothing wrong for supporting ACT. I am Libertarian.

The Slippery Slope said...

There is a HUGE difference to being an EX gang member and being a current gang member. Ironically it is the very 'respect' he has earned from being a gang member that he claims helps him. While it is not illegal to be in a gang, the activities undertaken to gain gang membership are. I can't see how a current gang member can help youth to not become gang members. They are merely looking for similar respect the gang member demands, that is the world they know and that is the world a current gang member shows. I fully agree with Judith Collins.