Posts by Kyle Matthews

  • Island Life: Driving around Mt Eden,…,

    I'm not seeing poky little rabbit cages here and the idea of having smaller compounds seems more humane to me.

    It might be humane. It'll double the cost of housing the prisoners however.

    If you have a 'shed' with cells on either side of a communal area, you can house 30 - 40 prisoners easily. You might have two or three staff on round the clock to supervise that area. There might be a team of a dozen staff who cover those prisoners for a week, all day, all night.

    If you go to a smaller unit, you might have 5 prisoners in it. You still need two staff minimum to supervise it. To cover 24 hours all week you need to employ 10 guards to guard 5 prisoners. So you've just multiplied your staffing costs for supervision by a factor of about 5. You need twice as many guards as prisoners.

    Prisons, among other things, need to be run efficiently. They're tremendously expensive to start with without making them more so.

    There are people in Corrections who are employed to design and build prisons following international best practice. They've spent quite a bit of time learning to be good at it, and our recently built prisons rate quite well.

    How anyone with access to The Herald's 'your views' pages can be reasonably considered to be able to do a better job I have no idea.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Field Theory: Just one point in it,

    You can see why, as a player, you might want to avoid that, and the coaches may want to avoid putting any extra pressure on some fairly young and inexperienced guys.

    I can understand why they wouldn't tell the whole team. Might never be an issue and you want them focused.

    Not telling the captain and vice-captain so they can make informed decisions if it becomes an issue? Bizarre.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Field Theory: Loss on two scales (2),

    Yeah.

    I've been on the "don't care either way" about the ABs coach since the world cup.

    I suspect I'm tipping now however.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Island Life: Driving around Mt Eden,…,

    Architectured containers would seem to lend themselves to a different living configuration - ie, it's easy to connect them and build roofed spaces between them , so you could have a small complex with bed/bath spaces around the perimeter and communal area within. Rather than the huge fortified barns. Surely this kind of model would have much lower construction costs and meet similar objectives? They would also be transportable if designed well.

    As much as possible, prisons can be designed so that the design suits rehabilative purposes. But it's still a prison. You can't just go "that would be nice" and put some containers around a roofed in area. You need to be able to lock down and separate prisoners in an emergency. Everything needs to be part o the structure, you can't just add heating or lights or anything like you can in a normal house - you have to build everything into the walls securely. There are various security levels and types of prisoners that have to be kept apart. There's also staff and their needs. You wouldn't put many prisoners into little modular units like you've described, as you'd have to assign at least a couple of staff to each of them for each shift. You'd need more staff than prisoners (it takes 5 staff be one person for 24/7) just to be in their units, let alone all the other staff that the prison requires.

    Prisons are incredibly expensive things to build. Corrections just spent years building four new ones, and they're only just keeping up with the increased number of clients. The container (which could only ever be the outside frame) is the least of the costs.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Field Theory: Loss on two scales (2),

    Or even just keep them away from a coach who is so staggeringly patronising that he can’t tell his team how many points they need to win by to win a trophy.

    That truly was astounding.

    I wouldn't mind if the Captain/halfback/first five decided not to risk going for the extra points, and just settle for the win. Not to tell them and give them the option as it might overload their wee brains?

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Island Life: The resignation of Captain Worth,

    I heard him say today, that he has learned that his behavior as a lawyer in a law firm in Tonga, is not appropriate behavior for an MP.

    I don't know much about Tongan law firms... or indeed anything. But I would have hoped it would be strongly discouraged there as well.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Island Life: The resignation of Captain Worth,

    BTW, in the interests of fairness, I've got to acknowledge that Rodney Hide appears to know how to handle sexual harassment allegations seriously. Messers Key and Goff should take notes.

    He gave him a stern telling off? Wasn't this you Craig?:

    Meanwhile, 3410, if someone comes to you claiming they've been subject to sexual harassment you'd take it seriously, and do everything in your power to make sure its reported promptly to the appropriate authority. And that wouldn't be the CEo's office.

    Shouldn't Rodney have reported it to the proper authorities?

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Island Life: Driving around Mt Eden,…,

    Not having had a chance to read beyond the one-note headlines yet, I'm not sure just how serious or detailed a plan is actually being considered. But if using containers as the starting point for modular cell units ends up being feasible and cheaper than building them from scratch, then why not?

    It saddens me to have to point this out, but containers are built for a purpose. To then rebuild them, for another purpose, makes very little sense.

    It would make a lot more sense to build them for purpose 2 in the first place. If you want to build modular prison cells, do a decent job and design it properly and build it from raw materials without the intervening step of turning it into a container and putting it on a ship with a pile of stuff in it numerous times.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Field Theory: Loss on two scales (2),

    How about we just let them play together from now on and enter them in 2011?

    I suspect the conditions helped make the game so good, but gee, we should see more under 20s rugby if it's all like that.

    Did you see the try-saver the fullback made on the English player in the first half? Tackled him and ripped the ball out of his arms as he was sliding across the line about to put it down. That's like George Gregan but better. Absolute fullback robbery.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Island Life: The resignation of Captain Worth,

    Apparently she's a Dunedin lawyer. Doesn't sound from what I can find to be a nutjob.

    In a stroll through the ACT party list you could end up with a lot worse from the little I know. She's the anti-stadium lawyer I believe.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

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