Prisoners Need Therapy – Yeah Right!

The Sensible Sentencing Trust has slammed comments by a drug councillor that prisoners need therapy and says it would be a good Tui Bill Board promotion – but a disastrous Corrections policy.

Drug councilor Roger Brooking, author of ‘Flying Blind’ was critical of National’s hard-line approach saying that Corrections needed to switch to therapy.

Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman, Garth McVicar said Brooking was totally out of touch with reality.

“Is Mr. Brooking so blind that he cannot see the huge increase in violent crime since New Zealand moved from punishment to therapy and rehabilitation?”

“Mr. Brooking is of an age that he will remember when a crime was a crime and offenders were punished for breaking the law – not given therapy. He will know that the move to rehabilitation rather than punishment is precisely the reason for the ballooning crime and prison rates.”

Mr. McVicar said that actions must have consequences. “The consequence of committing crime these-days is the offender will be given every consideration by the Courts, including discounts for an ‘early’ guilty plea and then be handed a community based sentence with absolutely no consequences if not abided by. The system has become a joke and the offenders know it!”

“The mamby-pamby therapy model that Mr. Brooking is promoting has been tried and failed. We need to accept that it is a failed social experiment and get back to some basic tried and proven values such as, accountability, boundaries, consequences and discipline.”

“The fact that two thirds of prisoners have drug and alcohol problems is not the fault of Corrections or prison; it is the fault of the individual who made a deliberate choice to take the drugs or alcohol.”

“The excuse driven ‘therapy’ model that Mr. Brooking is promoting knows no bounds and will simply line the pockets of those offering the ‘treatment’.”

“I imagine councilors such as Mr. Brooking will also disagree with Nationals policy of beneficiaries having to undergo drug tests or face their benefits being cut off.”

There are some who see welfare as a taxpayer funded gravy-train but in reality it has destroyed a lot of lives while creating a lucrative livelihood for the ‘therapists’.”

Mr. McVicar said most people will see Nationals ‘drugs-or-dole’ policy as sensible.

ENDS

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