Leigh Marsh: Corrections Custodial Services Commissioner on Paremoremo prison makeover

A colourful makeover coming for Auckland's Paremoremo prison unit which houses the country's most dangerous criminals, won't be anything too flashy.

In a bid to lift its oppressive conditions, the Prisoners of Extreme Risk Unit is receiving a fresh paint job with colourful designs and shapes.

It follows a Chief Ombudsman report raising concerns of human rights abuse.

Corrections Custodial Services Commissioner Leigh Marsh says it won't involve detailed murals of people and places.

He says it'll be a range of natural colours , with hues of blues and greens with geometric triangles that look like trees.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's in a paint job. Well, Perema Remo prison houses
the country's MOCE notorious criminals. Of course, the theory is
if you slap some colorful designs and shapes on the walls,
you'll lift the quote oppressive surroundings. Now, this apparently all
came out of concerns from the Chief Onwoodsman's report last
December about cruel and humane and degrading conditions. Lee marsh
Is Corrections Custodial Services Commissioner and is Weather this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good morning, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
So it's one thing to have a report, I guess
it's another thing to go after might attend to buy
a whole lot of buckets of ten litre paint. How
does this thing unfold? You know, from the report to this,
How did we get here?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Well, this is actually part of a much broader piece
of work. To just one small part of it. We're
looking at a range of combination of both maintenance and
improvements to the safety and security of the whole environment.
And just being clear, this isn't isn't just around at
the prisoners. Whilst we've had that feedback around the oppressive
nature of a very stark and basic scheme within that environment.

(00:53):
We've also got to appreciate that our staff and a
lot of other workers work in that environment too, so
we want to make that as as good and conducive
for them as possible.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Who designs what it looks like?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Well, the color schemes and the designs are pulled together
buying in house design team as part of others, say
a much broader piece of work. We've had a range
of people at work in that environment and visit the environment,
input into that, and that's where we've come up with
what is, quite frankly, a very basic geometric design that
enables us to maintain it and keep it, keep it

(01:24):
in a good state for longer.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Is it design that's the key or the color?

Speaker 2 (01:30):
I think there's a combination of both. So what to
be really clear here, when we talk about murials, we're
not talking about pictures of people and landscapes. We're talking
about a range of colors that kind of more natural colors,
sort of hues of blues and greens, And we're talking
about geometric triangles that to the franct look a little
bit like trees. But we keep them nice and simple

(01:52):
because they're all done with stencils and inevitably, this is
a prison unit and things will get damaged and graffited
and we can just pop in with the spencil and
readers repainted.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
What do the staff say? Are they bullish on this?
Are they excited about it? Or is it like, oh yeah,
good luck?

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Now? I think the staff are really supportive of making
our environment a lot better for them to work in.
It's just to be clear. I mean that a lot
of the reports so far I've talked just about the
prisoner selling yard. It's far greater than that. It's all
of the entry ways, the four years, the staff areas,
the external yards, the visits area, of the interviews. Essentially,
it's quite if you can imagine a large commercial building

(02:27):
and it's everything in there, of all the areas that
our stuff are working. So they're very supportive of this.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
You got any kping our eyes out of this? I mean,
is there any thing material that will ever come out
of this? Well, people commit fewer murders, they'll be less
better than then the prison. Someone will skip down the
corridor because they're so thrilled to work. Now, I mean,
does anything actually happen.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Now, Well, we know there's a lot of research that
suggest that moving away from very stark and plain, great
environments does help reduce tension and monotony. What God to
appreciate is the men that are in this environment are
going to be in here for a long time, and
they are very dangerous individuals. And one of the things
we were focused on is how we can get them
engaged and not bored, because things like that help them

(03:07):
engage in rehab rehab, but also reduce the tension and
make it safer for us. Stuff.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
All right, I appreciate it lately, my shoes with the correction.
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