Prison Fellowship Seeks Rational Debate on Prisons and Sentencing

“It’s time Sensible Sentencing and Rethinking Crime and Punishment got together and had an informed discussion about what really works in prisons. We need to get rationale - there are some things we can agree on – let’s find out what they are”. That was Kim Workman’s response to last night’s Campbell Live’s coverage of the Sensible Sentencing Trust’s visit to Joe Arpaio’s Tent City, Arizona.

"The problem with punitive regimes of the kind favoured by Joe Arpaio, is that they can encourage degrading and punitive conduct by prison staff – as evidenced by the number of prisoners who have died at the hands of jail staff in the Maricopa County. It reinforces a negative culture within the prison."

“There are not a lot of lessons to be learnt from Joe Arpaio. The Arizona imprisonment rate is four times that of New Zealand, the homicide rate is three times that of New Zealand, and the robbery rate is twice that of New Zealand. Arpaio doesn’t know what the recidivism rate is, but on the basis of the known statistics, it’s probably about the same as ours.

Both Sensible Sentencing and Prison Fellowship agree that all prisoners should be working – and most prisoners are eager for that opportunity. Most prisoners will snap up job training, education, and programs to address their offending behaviour. We should be working together to ensure that the government provides those opportunities.

Sensible Sentencing and the Rethinking Crime project also agree that the role and rights of the victim should be a major concern in the criminal justice system. And most of all, we agree that prisoners need to be held accountable for their conduct, and develop a sense of civic responsibility. That seems to me to be a basis for further discussion.

Lowering the recidivism rate does matter - every time someone offends we create another victim. There is also a lot of available information about what works best in prisons – we need to exchange that information, and look for matters on which we can agree, rather than constantly find fault with one another

ENDS

www.rethinking.org.nz

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