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John Tamihere: Gangs use prisons as 'recruitment factories'

Author
Newstalk ZB Staff,
Publish Date
Wed, 12 Apr 2017, 8:52AM
Prison is a place that drives people to gangs, not away from them, says John Tamihere. Picture / Christine Cornege

John Tamihere: Gangs use prisons as 'recruitment factories'

Author
Newstalk ZB Staff,
Publish Date
Wed, 12 Apr 2017, 8:52AM

The Department of Corrections is being blasted for suggesting it protects inmates from gang culture.

Corrections is putting the blame for high Maori re-offending rates at the feet of gangs, saying they drive ex-inmates back into a life of crime.

It comes after the Waitangi Tribunal said the government has failed to reach its obligations, to reduce Maori numbers in prisons.

Waipareira Trust CEO John Tamihere told Mike Hosking Corrections' claim that its rehabilitation work is undone outside of prison, is not true.

"To suggest that they gang-proof you while you're in prison is not true. It is a recruitment factory," he said.

"There is a culture where, to protect yourself, you become aligned with a gang."

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