The way to deal with the two Paremoremo Prison inmates who have barricaded themselves in a prison tower is simple: leave them there.
Prison bosses are right to have rejected requests from the two inmates to bring in prisoners’ advocate Peter Williams, QC.
They shouldn’t bother bringing in any negotiators.
As Alf understands it, the inmates in question have no food and the guard tower has no home comforts. It will be cold and miserable up there.
Good.
So just leave them there. Preferably until they have served their time.
Stuff today tells us here that –
The two men, one of whom is thought to be serial prison escaper Aaron Forden, spent their second night camped out in the disused tower inside maximum security Paremoremo Prison last night. They communicated with media outside the prison yesterday by writing on a window with toothpaste: “Peaceful protest against department” and “Contact Peter Williams QC”.
Williams – we are told – has not acted for either of the men but is prepared to act as a mediator if the go-ahead is given by the Department of Corrections.
He has acted as a mediator in the prison in the past when prisoners have rioted.
“I’m pretty well-known in that prison as a friend of the prisoners.”
But Corrections’ general manager of prison services Jeanette Burns declined the offer.
She said the men
“…will be given the ability to call a lawyer once they come down from the tower.
“Outside assistance is not required at this point”.
As Burns points out, there is no possibility of the men escaping.
So the department will simply wait them out.
Good move.
It won’t be too comfortable up in the tower.
Large spotlights were trained on the pair last night and Corrections has said they would not feed the men while they remained up the tower.
Burns said trained negotiators are on site engaging with the prisoners directly.
“Prison staff have the situation under control. The prisoners cannot escape and there is no risk to the public.
If that be so, Alf wouldn’t bother engaging with the buggers.
Just ignore them.
The media would do us a favour if it ignored them too.
Let ’em sweat – or freeze, more likely.
Alf is minded of a time when being sent to the Tower was bad news for the bugger who was sent there.
He brushed up on his history at Wikipedia (here).
The peak period of the castle’s use as a prison was the 16th and 17th centuries, when many figures who had fallen into disgrace, such as Elizabeth I before she became queen, were held within its walls.
Back in the reign of Edward III (1312–1377) the Tower of London held many noble prisoners of war.
Edward II had allowed the Tower of London to fall into a state of disrepair,[36] and by the reign of Edward III the castle was an uncomfortable place. The nobility held captive within its walls were unable to engage in activities such as hunting which were permissible at other royal castles used as prisons, for instance Windsor.
Mind you, conditions in the Tower of London weren’t as grim as Alf would like them to be for Paremoremo prisoners.
High-status prisoners could live in conditions comparable to those they might expect outside; one such example was that while Walter Raleigh was held in the Tower his rooms were altered to accommodate his family, including his son who was born there in 1605.
They had namby-pamby regulators in them days, too, and
…the Privy Council had to sanction the use of torture, so it was not often used; between 1540 and 1640, the peak of imprisonment at the Tower, there were 48 recorded cases of the use of torture. The three most common forms used were the infamous rack, the Scavenger’s daughter, and manacles.
Even so, a few inmates lost their heads there. Among those held and executed at the Tower was Anne Boleyn.
The Paremoremo twosome lost their heads when they decided to flee to a disused guard tower in the middle of winter.
Alf Grumble 