Ole
interviews Field McConnell, who was born into a military family, and
who has witnessed the fight between good and evil in the world today.
Field has turned into a whistle-blower, shining light on the
deceptive practices of those powers that are manipulating our world
affairs. Field speaks about SERCO, the "biggest company that
you've never heard of", a private company out of the United
Kingdom, which he claims is responsible for running the entire US
Military. Support Ole Dammegard and visit his website: https://www.lightonconspiracies.com/
Serco in New Zealand are running private prisons and want to spread their tentacles into rail. Their head, Tory and grandson of Winston Churchill, has just been in the country
Stripping prisoners of their right to vote, abusing them and leaving them in poorly guarded environments where that abuse can become the norm should embarrass us. It will barely rate a mention during the Rugby World Cup coverage.
Serco
is looking at new opportunities in New Zealand, particularly in
operating rail services chief executive Rupert Soames says.
The
Serco boss does acknowledged recent controversy over his company's
running of Mt Eden prison — where Corrections staff have
stepped in to take over management — and an extended inquiry
have to be worked through first.
"We
are looking at rail services in particular, and also other
opportunities, but we’ll see," Mr Soames said. "Let’s
just get through this thing, because there is an issue of trust, and
we have to go and satisfy people that we have responded correctly."
The
UK-based Serco provides a range of services to
governments, including
rail,
and there has been speculation it is interested in managing social
housing in New Zealand.
In
January, Serco was named as
a rival to state-owned KiwiRail (the incumbent) in a tender to
manager rail services in Wellington. The result tender, potentially
worth hundreds of millions, will be announced later this year.
And
in April, Auckland Transport said Serco was one of three companies
it had invited to tender to operate passenger rail services from
July 1, 2016 (the other two are Transdev Auckland - the incumbent -
and KiwiRail).
On
Friday, KiwiRail said it improved its earnings before interest, tax,
depreciation and asset impairments to $91 million in the year to
June 30, 2015, 17% ahead of the previous financial year.
After
depreciation and writedowns on the value of the rail network
KiwiRail owns, the state-owned enterprise reported a net loss of
$167 million for the year, a 33% improvement on last year's
loss.
KiwiRail
is locked in negotiations with government ministers and the Treasury
on initiatives to establish the national value of its operations,
since it cannot be expected to make a profit in the long term
because there is too little freight in New Zealand to fully cover
the cost of the 4000km network of tracks.
RAW
DATA: The Nation - Lisa Owen interviews Serco chief executive Rupert
Soames
Lisa
Owen: Now, they used to be the biggest company no one had ever heard
of, but it’s fair to say that’s no longer true for troubled
outsourcing giant Serco. It’s being investigated over a raft of
allegations at Mt Eden Prison, including fight clubs, contraband and
underreporting of prisoner violence, and last week we revealed their
interest in providing back-room services to those buying state
houses. Now, we have repeatedly asked Serco for an interview this
year, and each time we’ve been turned down, so hearing that the
global CEO, Rupert Soames, was in New Zealand, we decided to track
him down instead. Now, Mr Soames had a very busy day yesterday. He
told me he met with Corrections Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga, Corrections
boss Ray Smith and that he visited both Mt Eden and the new Serco-run
prison at Wiri.
Rupert
Soames: Clearly this is a major issue for Serco and for Mt Eden
Prison, so I want to make that we are cooperating fully with all the
investigations and making sure that people are getting all the
information that they need. Some of the allegations are very serious
and need to be taken very seriously.
What
makes you think you should keep your contract? Well,
that will not be for us to decide. It’s going to be— clearly,
there’s an investigation going on at the moment. There are, it has
to be said, many good things that have happened at Mt Eden over the
last four years. If you go and look at the rate of drug dependency,
it is far lower—But,
Mr Soames, with the greatest of respect, there is video circulating
showing serious fight clubs at that prison. A number of officers have
been stood down in recent times for inappropriate behaviour. What is
going on there? Well,
there is a full-scale investigation going on, being led independently
by the Chief Inspector, overseen by the Ombudsman, with which we are
cooperating in ourselves. We also have our own investigation going
on, and we take these very seriously.How
can the New Zealand taxpayer trust your company? I
suggest what should happen is that we let the investigation run its
course.Given
the breadth and volume of allegations – serious allegations –
involving Mt Eden Prison, it’s got to be one of two things, doesn’t
it? It’s got to be that there is incompetence in that prison on the
part of your company, or you’re being wilfully blind and your
employees have been wilfully blind?
I
don’t think either of those two conclusions are the case. What I do
know is the case is that as is entirely appropriate when serious
allegations which we care about very much, let me just— just remind
ourselves of the facts, okay, is that Mt Eden Prison under our
ownership— sorry, ownership is the wrong word – under our
direction of managing the prison has gone from being one of the
worst-rated prisons in New Zealand to being one of the best.It’s
certainly not one of the best. No,
no, no, no, no. Okay, so there are now questions saying what’s
going on? There’s serious allegations which we take really
seriously, which is one of the reasons that I’m here, and there is
a proper investigation going on.So
how does your staff—? And
there are—Sorry
to interrupt you, but this is really important. Of
course it’s important.How
could your staff not know what was going on there when prisoners seem
to have been willy-nilly filming themselves in fight clubs, dealing
in contraband, smoking and drinking? How could this happen under the
nose of your staff? Well,
it shouldn’t happen. There is contraband in prisons. I have to say
that the rate of contraband in prisons in Mt Eden is actually pretty
low.You’re
trying to justify the videos that we’ve seen… I’m
not trying to justify—…or
minimise? Because that sort of sounds like that. I’m
not trying to minimise it in the slightest at all. That's one of the
reasons why I've come here — to make sure that the investigations
that the Chief Inspector and the Ombudsman are doing; that we are
fully cooperating with them. We have our own investigations going on.
We take it very seriously. Can I just say that we don't fire people
on the basis of allegations. You know, I don't know which bit of the
Magna Carta says that you go and fire people. You properly
investigate. There's a professional investigation going on to sort
those which are wild allegations from those which are truthful
allegations.The
mere existence of the video shows… It's
shocking.Yeah.
How would you describe it? Oh,
shocking. Two things are shocking. It is shocking that fighting is
going on inside the prison. It is also shocking that there are mobile
phones in the prison. I have to say I don't believe that Mt Eden is
the only prison in New Zealand or, indeed, in the world where mobile
phones are.But
that in of itself, the existence of the video, in and of itself,
shows that you've failed in your duties to properly manage that
prison, doesn't it? But
I have to say that we live in a real world here in which, let me tell
you, that you are going to put a lot of often very violent men
together, there is fighting. I don't justify it. I don't condone it.
I think that the idea... I'm very worried about the idea of the
existence of fight clubs, and, clearly, there is too much violence.
In fact, in Mt Eden the level of violence has in the past few years
it has dropped a lot. It has now picked up, and one of our issues
there is to find out why and what we can do, and more importantly,
what we should be doing better to run that prison. You ask who is
responsible. I am responsible. I am the chief executive of Serco,
therefore, the buck stops with me. But I would say to the taxpayers
of New Zealand is that what the facts that we know show, and it may
turn out that the reporting has been wrong, that there is something
going on, if the reporting has been correct, that what the taxpayers
had in New Zealand is a situation where one of the worst-rated
prisons has become one of the best-rated prisons. It's been rated exceptional. Now, there may questions about that. And it has also
been done at a cost that is substantially lower...I
think the thing is, also, opposition politicians have said you're at
the top of the league table because you are cooking the books. What
is your response to that allegation, because it's a serious one? It's
an incredibly serious allegation. Incredibly serious. I mean, the
citizens of New Zealand and our customers have the right to expect
that the numbers and the issues that we are reporting to them are
correct. When I say correct, I don’t mean completely error-free,
but we have been properly reporting. Can I remind you also that since
we’ve had this contract, we’ve been closely monitored by the
Department of Corrections. There are four monitors on site. This is
not something that’s operating in an island in itself. I
personally—that’s why I want to get to the bottom of these
allegations. Either Mt Eden has improved greatly under our ownership,
or it hasn’t. If it has, okay, then I think Serco should be should
praised and say, ‘Well done, Serco.’ If it hasn’t, then we will
have to bear the consequences of it. I’m completely clear about
this, and people have to be able trust that we are reporting what is
actually going on.What
level of confidence can you express in your senior staff at the
prison? Can you say you are 100% confident that the senior staff in
your prison have behaved appropriately and administered the contract
as they should? Look,
I think what we need to see is to see the results of the
investigations. Staff are experienced. They have been working very
closely with the Department of Corrections. These are serious
allegations. Saying that I have confidence or no confidence doesn’t
actually help anything.You
can’t express confidence in your own senior staff—your own senior
management at the prison?
I
have confidence in the way they have been running the prison, subject
to—we need to see the results of these serious allegations. I have
to say, prison are places that allegations get made about, and quite
rightly, they should be investigated properly, but it is not
necessarily the case that each one of them is true.Serco
runs a lot of services overseas outside of prison services. So what
interest do you have in expanding the services that you offer in New
Zealand? Because I understand that you have been looking at the state
housing situation. Yes,
and other opportunities here. We are committed to New Zealand. We
wish to be good citizens here. We are often—We are active in the
area of government services, and part of what—the reason I want to
be here is to make sure that we are dealing and responding
appropriately here so that if the Government, at the end, is going to
go, ‘actually, we think you’ve done it okay’—can I just
say one thing that’s absolutely certain is that whatever comes out
of this report, they are going to show up failings; things that we
could have done better. I absolutely know that. We are working
already to go and improve what we do.Are
you looking at youth justice? No.
We are look—we are looking at rail services in particular, and also
other opportunities, but we’ll see. Let’s just get through this
thing, because there is an issue of trust, and we have to go and
satisfy people that we have responded correctly.Okay. Okay,
so, thank you.I
really do appreciate your frankness and your time.
How long before we get this in this country?
Private
Prisons Threaten To Sue States Unless They Get More Inmates For Free
Labor
Freedom
is apparently bad for business. That’s the message from the private
prison industry which is threatening to sue states if they don’t
start locking more people up.
The
private prison companies, well-known for profiting off of
incarceration and crime, is now saying that the state’s they have
contracted with aren’t keeping up their end of the bargain. The
private prisons rely on a certain number of inmates for free and
virtually-free slave labor.
That
labor is used for a variety of trades, including making uniforms for
popular restaurants like McDonalds and Applebee’s. But if the
private prisons don’t have enough inmates locked up then production
goes down correlative with the decrease in free labor (i.e. slavery).
It
comes as a surprise to many Americans, but slavery was never actually
abolished in the United States. That’s not a metaphor, it’s a
matter of careful reading of the 13th amendment to the Constitution.
That amendment – often lauded for abolishing slavery – actually
makes an exception for prisons. Slavery is still completely legal as
“punishment for a crime.”
USA
Today explains the following:
Ratified
at the end of the Civil War, the amendment abolished slavery, with
one critical exception: Slavery and involuntary servitude actually
remain lawful “as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall
have been duly convicted.” In other words, according to this
so-called punishment
clause,
if you get pulled over with the wrong controlled substance in your
trunk, there’s nothing in the 13th Amendment to ensure you can’t
be considered a slave of the state.
The
punishment clause was taken
directly from
the Northwest
Ordinance of 1787 and
reflected the belief of the time that hard work was essential to
prisoners’ moral rehabilitation. But the language was also
ambiguous enough to be grossly abused. Soon, the clause was being
used to reinstitute slavery under another guise.
Consider
that there are more African Americans behind bars today than there
were enslaved at any given time in American history and it becomes
clear how corporations got their “work around” to keep slavery
100% legal. This is nothing new. This is the way it has been since
slavery was supposedly abolished.
Now,
the private prison industries say the government isn’t keeping up
their end contracts for this slave labor.
Those
government agencies signed contracts guaranteeing a minimum
occupancy or quota of prisoner-slaves
California
guarantees that prisons will be filled to 70% capacity at all times.
Arizona promises almost 100% occupancy.
With
crime dropping, the private prison industry is losing money and they
are none too pleased.
In
order to avoid these lawsuits, judges will have to dish out
extra-long maximum sentences – not because the defendant deserves
it, but because the state wants to keep these contracts in good
standing with the private prison industry.
If
you oppose slavery, then help us SPREAD THE WORD about this
legal-loophole that has been keeping slavery in full effect since the
13th amendment was written.
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