Corrections Announcements Score Zero for Ambition
Charles CHAUVEL
Justice Spokesperson
21 May 2012
MEDIA STATEMENT
Corrections Announcements Score Zero for
Ambition
Today's Corrections pre-budget
announcements by Anne Tolley and Pita Sharples demonstrate
an astounding lack of ambition to tackle re-offending,
Labour’s Justice spokesperson Charles Chauvel says.
“The ministerial announcements fail the vision
test in so many ways.
“Firstly, reducing prisoner
numbers by 100 per year over the next 6 years is hardly
something to boast about. The target would have been more
than that if National had retained Labour's Sentencing
Council and allowed it to issue consistent nationwide
sentencing guidelines.
"Second, any reduction in
inmate numbers is likely to occur in spite of, not because
of, Government policy.
“The crime rate has been
trending downwards since the 1990s; the prison population is
declining thanks in part to better use of police diversion
and there are already hundreds of empty prison beds across
the corrections network.
“On the other hand
reconviction rates have gone up over the last four years,
while initiatives like the 'three strikes' law are yet to
flow through into the system.
“Having fewer
prisoners is a good thing. But the same prisoners committing
crimes over and over again - the likely scenario in two
years' time at the end of this Government's term - is a
major public policy failure,” Charles Chauvel
said.
"Increasing drug and alcohol treatment for
inmates is always a good way to help break the re-offending
cycle, but none of this is new money - it is 'reprioritised'
spending. So it remains to be seen what part of the
Corrections budget these funds have been taken from, and
what existing services will not be provided as a
result.
"Good inmate employment initiatives are
worthwhile as well, but if university graduates are finding
it tough to get jobs right now, 'supporting' thousands of
ex-inmates into employment isn't going to be a simple
exercise, and questions arise about how effective it is
likely to be.
"Finally, the suggestion from Pita
Sharples that rehabilitation will increasingly be the
responsibilty of communities, not Corrections, is
impractical. By this time next year, over 25 per cent of
prison capacity will sit in South Auckland, and many of
these inmates will be preparing to re-enter society far from
their families and communities, especially as much regional
prison capacity is being closed in order to pay Fletchers,
Serco and Spotless to build and operate Wiri.
"We
were all starting to get used to the idea of a budget
containing zero new expenditure. Today's announcements
show we need to start preparing for a budget that also
contains zero vision and zero ambition for the brighter
future John Key once promised us all,” Charles Chauvel
said.
ENDS