Prisoners are being provided with state-of-the-art high definition television sets in a move the National party says highlights Corrections' cavalier attitude toward the spending of taxpayer money.
Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor has confirmed that LCD TVs have been supplied for inmates at the new medium security Auckland Region Women's Corrections
Facility - and are also likely for new prisons in Otago and Spring Hill, just south of Meremere.
LCD televisions were considered "better value" than normal colour sets because their flat lightweight nature meant they could be more easily wall-mounted out of the reach of prisoners.
"These advantages reduce the risk of damage, and parts of the television being removed for use as make-shift weapons or mountings being used by prisoners to self-harm," O'Connor said.
Depending on the size, LCD TVs can be up to four times the price of normal TVs. They are thin and light, with high-resolution wide-screen picture, but use far more power than conventional TVs.
Two months ago, Corrections was forced to play down the discovery of an internet blog run by inmate Tim Selwyn, who wrote about an attack by inmates on a fellow prisoner. Before that, the department had fended off criticism over the installation of underfloor heating in Northland, Auckland Women's, Springhill and Otago prisons, as well as claims that a prostitute had been found with an inmate in Wellington's Rimutaka prison.
O'Connor said the four LCD TVs at Auckland Region Women's Corrections Facility at Manukau cost $6756.
National's law and order spokesman Simon Power said O'Connor's claims made a mockery of his earlier claims that the new Auckland women's prison would not be "gold-plated".
"... after presiding over a $490m construction budget blowout, you would have thought he would have ordered sensible spending, but there's no sign of that.
"Normal TVs can be wall-mounted well out of reach, as they are in other prisons, so why not buy them - at about a quarter of the price?
"Under his [O'Connor's] watch, victims are trying to put their lives back together while these guys are sitting around watching Prison Break on flat-screen TVs and kept warm by under-floor heating, all at taxpayers' expense."
