Privately Managed Prisons

National is delivering on its promise to allow the private sector to compete against the Corrections Department, for the running of new prisons.

The Maori Party are very supportive, saying Maori interests may put together a bid.

The previous privately managed prison, had a Maori General Manager and local Iwi were full of praise for how inclusive the prison management was, compared to other prisons.

Labour’s law and order spokesman Clayton Cosgrove said running prisons was core government business and National’s move was based on “pure ideology”.

No the ideology was Labour that changed the law to force the previous private manager out, despite the fact they had been a stunning success.

It is the role of the state to set policy and standards for prisons. Absolutely. But the state does not have to deliver every service it is responsible for. In fact often it is better they do not. Governments tend to be quite good at policy. But not so good at actually running things.