Labour's Kelvin Davis says the death of an inmate during a hazing ritual at the Serco-run Mt Eden Prison is the "tip of the iceberg" – but admits he doesn't have any proof.
Mr Davis, the party's corrections spokesperson, claimed in Parliament yesterday a prisoner was fatally injured after being beaten up by gang members and dropped off a balcony.
"I'm told on good authority there's a practise in Mt Eden called dropping," he said. "New prisoners are sized up by the gangs, bashed up and dropped from a balcony onto a concrete floor."
According to Mr Davis, a prisoner known as 'Evans' suffered a ruptured lung earlier this year after being dropped, but instead of being taken to hospital, was sent to Northland Region Corrections Facility, near Ngawha, an hour's drive away.
"When he got there, and to quote my source, it was obvious he was damaged goods," Mr Davis said on the Paul Henry programme this morning.
The next day Evans was allegedly admitted to Whangarei Hospital, but died.
"I've been told subsequently he might have got the injuries while he was in transit – well, that's just an absolute nonsense," says Mr Davis.
"There's only one place he could have got those injuries, and that is before he got in that transit van."
Both Serco and Corrections have denied knowing anything about 'dropping'.
"No one has reported anything like that to us or the department, or anyone else I am aware of," Serco's managing director Scott McNairn told Radio New Zealand.
Corrections chief executive Ray Smith says he only found about the so-called fight clubs at Mt Eden when videos uploaded to YouTube were reported on at the weekend.
But the Corrections Association, which represents prison employees, says Mr Smith and other Corrections authorities were told of the violence a year ago in an official report, and Mr Davis says they've known even longer than that.
"They were told three years ago about the fight clubs, and they waited for three years for video evidence to come out on YouTube. That is unacceptable," says Mr Davis.
"It defies belief, it just stretches credibility that they just found out about that report on Saturday, when the officials have had it since July last year."
Unlike the videos that have emerged in the past week appearing to show fighting, drinking and drug-taking at Mt Eden, there is no video evidence of 'dropping'.
"There are really serious issues going on in Serco, and if the minister doesn't want to believe it – if he's only going to believe YouTube videos – well then we've got real problems," says Mr Davis, whose sources are "upstanding people in our community".
But he won't reveal who told him about dropping, because "whistleblowers don't get treated well by this Government". Nor will he reveal how many instances he has been made aware of, except to say it's "a lot", or any details of any other cases.
"I'll release things when I want to release them. I'm not going to do it [on TV]… I'll do things in my own time."
Serco and Corrections are conducting investigations into the fight club videos, with Mt Eden on "full lockdown", but say no illegal drugs or alcohol have been found yet. Mr Davis wants the review widened and Serco officials in front of a select committee.
"There needs to be a real investigation – not this silly, narrow review that the minister's announced."
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