Editorial: Men who deserve to be heard

OPINION: People taking issue with the state of our prisons and the conditions prisoners must face as part of their punishment are usually easily dismissed.

Whether it be a letter to the editor or a caller to talkback radio, the response is often painfully predictable: sneering, condescending – prisoners are scum and deserve to be treated as such, with the do-gooders not far behind. For the many ready to so quickly jump to such conclusions, those incendiary opinions are normally out of the mouth before the brain has had time to think; an involuntary reflex action or example of muscle memory.

Also, it is usually inferred in ways that will make the opinion plain to all reading or listening that the person who has concerns about prison conditions and criminals' rights shares with those jailed some serious character flaw or mental weakness.

Which makes the comments about New Plymouth Prison by the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, and former Governor-General Sir Paul Reeves all the more interesting.

Seeing they are men of the cloth, it might be easy for others to dismiss their outrage over the state of our old prison as the thoughts and commentary of men more concerned with more ethereal matters and other-worldly theological issues not necessarily of this Earth.

And had Dr Sentamu made such controversial statements at the start of his visit to our region, such a dismissal might have been more understandable.

But he didn't.

Dr Sentamu's shock was expressed at the end of his tour, by which stage he had proven himself to men, women and children of all backgrounds to have a rare gift of passion, compassion, leadership, courage and, above all, common sense.

And a man who knows first-hand the brutality of brutal injustice and the inside of a hideous prison cell.

A man who deserves to be heard. As does Sir Paul.

Their inner thoughts on the broader issue of crime and punishment are not known, but it is doubtful that either man would disagree with a person committing serious crimes being imprisoned as part of their sentence and to keep the public safe.

And no one is suggesting that the enforced lodgings be made so comfortable that they encourage recidivism.

But the principal component of any sentence is the denial of liberty itself. Nowhere in the sentencing does it say that the Crown will endeavour to ensure part of the punishment is accommodation that a reasonable person would describe as "a source of shame and disgrace for us all" and "dehumanising".

If, as a Corrections spokesman says, the priority is to keep the public safe, then surely that is achieved by locking someone up, separating them from society.

To deliberately choose to treat them even worse is to fall prey to the same base human instincts that brought those people before our courts in the first place.

- © Fairfax NZ News