The cost of double bunking

When then-Corrections Minister Judith Collins introduced double bunking in New Zealand prisons, criminologists warned that it would lead to rapes, bullying and violence. And now it has. Stuff reports that a teenage remand prisoner was allegedly raped by his cellmate:

Police are investigating the alleged rape of a teenager on remand at Waikeria Prison.

And the teen's father says a hit has been ordered on his son because he complained to guards.

The prisoner wrote to the Waikato Times this week about ongoing sexual and physical assaults he has endured in prison.

The teen wrote that he was raped in the night by his cellmate within a week of entering prison earlier last month.

Pretty obviously, he wouldn't have been raped by his cellmate if he didn't have one.

While it is up to the police to resolve this crime, Collins had Ministerial responsibility for the circumstances which led to it. And she needs to be held accountable for that.