Struggle with loss of mana for prison officer caught smuggling
File image. © Andrew Bardwell
A prison officer who smuggled tobacco for an inmate has faced losing his job and his income, but he says the worst thing has been the loss of his mana.
Raymond Heperi Harris, 60, today apologised to the Prison Service for his offending, before Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish sentenced him to three months of community detention and 120 hours of community work.
As a former prison officer, Harris will not be able to do the work on the normal community work gang, but a private placement with some agency may be found for him.
He pleaded guilty in July to a charge of breaching the Correction Act’s rules about unauthorised deliveries. He had been paid about $2500 by an inmate to smuggle three blocks of compressed tobacco into the prison hidden in his underwear.
Defence counsel Steve Hembrow said Harris had been the mentor for the inmate. Money had been paid into his bank account, and he expected that once that happened Harris would have been under considerable pressure.
“He feels deeply that he has let down his family who he is extremely close to. He is ashamed about the publication of his picture in the paper,” Mr Hembrow said. “The real punishment for him here is his loss of mana. He has found that extremely difficult to bear.”
Harris had resigned as a prison officer after being questioned and before the charge was laid. He had now taken on other lower-paid work with a company engaged in the rebuild. His employer was in court to support him, and had provided a reference.
Judge Farish said the inmate had learned that Harris’ “Achilles heel” was his financial vulnerability. “You have a large whanau and you are a generous man, and there are bills that go with having a large family.”
She said that within the prison system, tobacco was a tradeable commodity, and it was illegal.
The community detention sentence would have a considerable effect on Harris, because it would keep him at home in the evenings, she said. He would no longer be able to carry out his normal work in relation to his wider hapu and iwi.
Category: News
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