Jail probe urged after P claims

The Corrections Department is defending the country's prison system after a killer described smoking P and downloading porn in jail.

The National Party is demanding an inquiry after the claims by Rachaelle Namana, who spent four years behind bars for the killing of her stepsister's child, 23-month-old Hinewaoriki Karaitiana-Matiaha, known as Lillybing.

The child died after being violently shaken by Namana.

Namana told the Sunday Star-Times that prison had not changed her, and while inside she had smoked P - pure methamphetamine - and downloaded pornography on her cellphone.

"It's not as hard as people make out," she said.

Namana said she had been given guidance in prison on how to get things by a woman who was among the group that murdered South Auckland pizza deliveryman Michael Choy.

"They go in there for a good, soft easy time," Mr Choy's mother, Rita Croskery, told the Herald.

"By crikey, if they actually tell you it's easy, it must be easy. They sit there and do nothing and hatch their next crime for when they get out. They should be in there for punishment and they should do some work."

The revelations come after a Herald series highlighting serious problems in New Zealand jails.

Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor was not available to comment on Namana's claims yesterday.

A Corrections spokesman said random drug testing was done in prisons and there had been a "significant increase" in contraband seized.

Assistance with drug or alcohol problems and rehabilitation largely depended on prisoners' willingness to change, the spokesman said.

National law and order spokesman Simon Power said the Government could not ignore Namana's claims. He wants a select committee inquiry.

"There are some pretty rotten things going on in our prisons. Add to that the Rachaelle Namana situation and there's no denying the system is in crisis."

The Howard League for Penal Reform said the Ombudsman had investigated the inner workings of the prisons and was "pretty damning about the lack of rehabilitation".

League spokeswoman Kathy Dunstall said Namana was probably not typical of prison inmates, many of whom wanted to turn their lives around. Hard drugs and cellphones were not widely available in prisons, she said.

Criminologist Greg Newbold, who served time in jail in the 1970s, said it did not appear Namana ever "engaged" with the enormity of what she had done, and therefore would have had an "easy lag".

Jail had always been a "relatively cruisy place", where drugs were freely available.

Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McVicar said Namana's claims simply confirmed what he already knew. "The criminal element don't fear prison any more."

Case history

* Rachaelle Namana pleaded guilty to manslaughter in May 2001 and was jailed for six years.

* Her niece, known as Lillybing, died from brain injury caused by shaking.

* Namana was convicted of benefit fraud in 2002 and sentenced to six months' jail, concurrently. Paroled in February 2005.