Time for New Zealand to Develop a New Approach to Punishment

“New Zealand has developed a similar approach toward punishment as that of other Anglophile countries” said Kim Workman, spokesperson for Rethinking Crime and Punishment. He was speaking at the launch of a book by criminologists John Pratt and Anna Erikson, “Contrasts in Punishment: ’ An explanation of Anglophone Excess and Nordic Exceptionalism” The book contrasts and compares the approach of Nordic countries toward punishment, with that of Anglophile nations, including New Zealand, last Thursday, 21st March.

“In the Anglophile approach, welfare thinking about punishment is effectively erased from political memory, to be replaced by policies that punish, exclude and marginalise. We are now at a place in New Zealand history where to quote the authors, “the state knows only how to use its powers negatively: more divisions , more punishments, more exclusions.”

“If you think that is an exaggeration, reflect on the political activities of the past week. Under the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill mothers will be denied the domestic purposes benefit, if they do not put their children into pre-school education. The unemployed will be deprived of a benefit if they test positive for drugs.

The House discussed the Parole Amendment Bill, the Bail Amendment Bill, the Legal Assistance (Sustainability) Amendment Bill , the Public Safety (Public Protection Orders) Bill, and the Human Rights Amendment Bill (which does away with the position of Race Relations Conciliator). All this legislation is aimed either at increasing the time offenders spend in prison, restricting the opportunity for release, or limiting their access to justice. Today was report-back time on the Prohibition of Gang Insignia on Government Premises Bill, which makes it a criminal offence to wear a gang patch into a government office. People who were once punished for doing are now punished for being.

“Compare our approach to that of the Nordic nations which emphasises on one hand, reliance on the state to secure the social wellbeing of its population, and on the other, an active resistance toward the over-use of punishment. The purpose of imprisonment is to guide prisoners toward a responsible use of freedom, a task not achievable if the prison experience demands complete obedience. You get a sense of this from a report of the Swedish Prison and Probation Board 1964, which says “We shall not forget that we live in a society that wants to show respect for the individual human beings - this is part of the essence of democracy”.

“However, I’m convinced that we are able to dig our way out of what is a rather large, black hole. There are positive signs of reform within the prison system. In recent months we have seen increased work activity in prisons, increased rehabilitation and reintegration activity, increased prisoner literacy and numeracy programmes, and plans to bring restorative justice back into the prison. The current CEO of Corrections is committed to community-led, Corrections supported prisoner reintegration, which places a strong focus on building social capital. There are a significant number of public servants and politicians who want to see a move away from the punitive, negative and controlling behaviour that has dominated our approach to criminal justice for the last twenty five years.”

“Contrasts in Punishment” is an important book, in that it constructs our social history around the issue of punishment, and through that analysis provides us with the information we need to strategise way forward.”

Link to Speech: http://www.rethinking.org.nz/assets/Speeches/Contrasts_in_Punishment.pdf

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