News of Zealand: Corrections Knew About Mt Eden Prison Fight Clubs But Buried Investigation

The fight clubs at Mt Eden prison became public when videos were posted online . Image via YouTube.

By the time footage of fight clubs at Mt Eden Jail was posted on YouTube in 2015, staff at the Department of Corrections had already known about them for a year—but a draft investigation into the violence was never finished or forwarded to senior staff. The department now says that was a mistake. UK company Serco lost the contract to run Auckland's remand prison in December 2015. A long-awaited investigation into Serco's management of the prison has finally been made public. It reveals details of the weekly "fight clubs," and describes drugs as "freely available" within the prison. Cellphones were also smuggled in by prison staff, and negligent guards.

Corrections Minister Judith Collins told the New Zealand Herald is was "totally unacceptable" that the internal report from July 2014 confirming staff were aware fighting was taking place between prisoners had not been completed. Labour and the Greens have called for the Government to cut all ties with Serco following the release of the report, but Prime Minister John Key stood by the private-public partnership model and would not rule out re-hiring Serco to run Mt Eden Jail in the future.

Creepy clown sightings are being reported on social media all over the world. Image via Flickr

Police are hunting two men dressed as clowns after a 22-year-old Hamilton woman received moderate injuries in a frightening assault in the early hours of Sunday morning. Police say it is the first reported Kiwi clown incident in the wake of the craze that started in the States. In August, reports emerged in South Carolina of clowns lurking in the woods and terrorising children. There have been copycat incidents reported in England, Australia, Scotland and Canada. Sociologist Robert Bartholomew told Newshub it had triggered a "social panic" but predicted it would be short-lived. "It's going to continue now for about three more weeks. It's going to peak around Halloween time and then it's going to suddenly decline and go the way of Pokemon Go and Flappy Bird and it's just going to plummet."

The results of the Cross-Party Homelessness Inquiry have been released, and things are bad. Homelessness is at the highest levels ever and having a job is no guarantee that New Zealanders will be able to afford a home."Homelessness is no longer dominated by the stereotypical rough sleeper with mental health issues and is now more often a working family with young children," the report said. Labour, The Greens and the Maori Party launched the inquiry after Government MPs turned down Opposition requests for one at a Parliamentary select committee. The resulting report makes 20 recommendations on how to deal with homelessness, starting with a Housing First policy which is based on the idea that people should be placed in a home before other issues like mental health and addiction are dealt with.

There was an election on the weekend. Just letting you know, in case you're one of the 60.5 per cent of eligible voters who didn't cast a vote. Local Government Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga told RNZ the Government would now be looking for ways to boost voter turnout, including online voting. Chlöe Swarbrick—who launched her bid for Auckland mayor focused on getting more people, particularly young people, to vote and then enlivened the race with her strong campaign—came in third. Swarbrick, said she had "hoped for better", but she can take some solace in the fact that voting turnout did rise slightly in Auckland, up from 35.5 percent to 38.25 percent.

Former Labour leader Phil Goff is now Auckland's mayor. It was a strong showing for Labour in the main centres with Lianne Dalziel romping back into office in Christchurch, as predicted, and newcomer Justin Lester winning in a much tighter contest in Wellington. Tim Shadbolt locked a record eighth term in Invercargill. The tightest race is in Hamilton where the result will come down to the special votes. Preliminary results have Andrew King ahead of Paula Southgate by only 14 votes.

A Dunedin man was so "buzzed" by seeing the Aurora Australis from the air that he's chartering a plane for the first tourist flight to the Southern Lights. Dr Ian Griffen, Otago museum director and keen astronomer, flew south on NASA's flying observatory SOFIA to a spot called the Aurora Oval on a night he called "a rubbish aurora night in Dunedin."

"We got some astounding views, so that really inspired me," he said. The eight-hour night flight to the same spot, scheduled for March 2017, guarantees great views but doesn't come cheap with economy seats costing $4000 and business class $8500. Griffen told RNZ there was already a interest from photographers, astronomers and nature lovers. "A lot of people are saying this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

And here's some of what's been happening at VICE NZ.

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They call it The Dungeon.