PARLIAMENT | PARTY | GRASSROOTS

Red Alert

Posts Tagged ‘prisons’

National/ACT make Quinn prisoner voting law even worse

Posted by Grant Robertson on September 19th, 2010

My good friend Andrew Geddis has delivered a devastating critique of the thoroughly misguided private members bill in the name of Paul Quinn to deny all prisoners a vote (as opposed to the current situation where those sentenced to three years or less can still vote). I have blogged about this before, and the bill was bad enough before it went to the Law and Order Select Committee. Now, amazingly the Bill has emerged from the Committee even worse than when it went in. I should note at the outset that Labour and the Greens are opposing the Bill, and have a minority report to that end.

Andrew is a level headed guy (and in the interests of fairness I should note he has expressed strong opposition to the earthquake legislation) who is not prone to hyperbole. So this paragraph should grab the attention

This proposal is downright wrong in its intent, outright stupid in its design and (if finally enacted) would be such an indelible stain on the parliamentary lawmaking process as to call into question that institution’s legitimacy to act as supreme lawmaker for our society.

As Andrew notes the Bill is against the advice of the Attorney General, and goes against decisions of the UN Human Rights Committee and courts in Canada, South Africa and Australia. It is a silly, hopeless piece of law that will do nothing to make New Zealand safer, and has the potential to make reintegration and rehabilitation more difficult.

But, amazingly, the National and ACT members of the Select Committee have combined to make the law worse. Andrew points out in his article that they are proposing to repeal the current legislative provisions regarding disqualification from voting and replace it with the following wording

“a person who is detained in a prison pursuant to a sentence of imprisonment imposed after the commencement of the Electoral (Disqualification of Sentenced 15 Prisoners) Amendment Act 2010:”

The effect of the repeal and a new clause only dealing with those imprisoned after the new law comes into force would seem to be that someone who is currently serving a term in prison of longer than three years (say Graeme Burton) could register to vote. I am sure National will now change this, but it really does typify what is a ridiculous bill.

There must be some in the National caucus who oppose this nonsense. Perhaps they should allow themselves a conscience vote and join Labour and the Greens in voting down this silliness?

Tags: , ,
Filed under: democracy, law and order, legislation
32 Comments

Filling the Prisons

Posted by Grant Robertson on August 16th, 2010

For those that did not see it, this article from the Fairfax papers in the weekend is well worth a read. It explores our appalling imprisonment rate, including some statistics where we dont stack up well at all

New Zealand locks up people at a rate of 199 per 100,000. The European average is about 80. Even Australia, our convict cousin, jails a third less than we do, according to figures from the International Centre for Prison Studies.

As I have said before on this blog, we have to get beyond the response that building more prisons is the answer to preventing crime. Of course keeping the likes of Graeme Burton off the streets is important, but that is not going to deal with the overall issue. I like my colleague Lianne Dalziel’s comment in the article that the basis of questioning around these issues should be “what makes our communities safer”. Continuing to lock people up without addressing the reasons behind how they got to be there will not make our communities safer.

Most would accept that crime is the result of addictions, mental ill-health, a bad start in life, poverty and other social factors, rather than because people are inherently evil, she says. So these are the issues we should be targeting with preventative and rehabilitative measures

There is optimism from those quoted in this article that more people are now prepared to look at the drivers of crime and get beyond the empty slogans and dangerous rhetoric of the Sensible Sentencing Trust/David Garrett types. I hope that is true because another election fought around who can throw out the toughest slogans is not what we need as a country. As Greg Newbold says in the article we need to start thinking in terms of 25 year goals to change a culture of violence, rather than in three year political cycles.

As politicians we have a job to come up with better policies, and that is something Labour is working on, but I also think the time has come for a broad based community grouping that can promote the importance of the long term approach to addressing the causes of crime and breaking the cycle. I for one would help that group in any way I can.

Tags: , , ,
Filed under: justice, law and order
34 Comments

Corrections to be largest Govt Dept- This is ambitious for NZ?

Posted by Grant Robertson on July 2nd, 2010

Most readers will know that I am a supporter of a strong public service to ensure that all New Zealanders get the support and services they need.  But I find the story, Corrections to become monster department in this morning’s NZ Herald fundamentally depressing. Bill English says in the article

Corrections will be in two or three years the largest government department, bigger than the Ministry of Social Development or the Inland Revenue Department.”

This really is sad. As a country we are pouring in money to the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. What we should be doing is investing to stop the causes of crime. The investment that should be being made is in CYFS and MSD to support parents and families, in Education to support those identified early as struggling, in Health to make sure health problems that might effect learning or behaviour are dealt with early, in Housing to make sure everyone has a safe place to live and call their home.

The insane thing here is that Bill English seems to realise the problem, but in the article is talking about the government’s approach as if someone else is doing it.

“This shortfall could expand under more punitive justice measures, he warned. Every time you ask for harsher penalties, that shortfall gets bigger. You are part of the driver of the costs. Lock another person up that’s another $90,000 (a year) plus another $250,000 capital (spending).”

Take some responsibility Bill. This was the government that told us they were ambitious for New Zealand. What a load of spin and nonsense. This is simply a plan for giving out the easy “tough on crime” rhetoric, while doing nothing to make New Zealand safer by stopping the crime in the first place.

Tags: , , ,
Filed under: law and order, public services
47 Comments

Join the protest against private prisons

Posted by Carol Beaumont on October 18th, 2009

dscf16763 dscf16782Yesterday, along with colleagues, I joined a protest against private prisons organised by the Corrections Association (CANZ).  I want to thank CANZ for setting up the campaign Stop the Cell-Off – No prisons for profit.

The Government will shortly introduce legislation enabling private prisons despite the experience here under the last National Government and evidence from overseas.  Actually this isn’t that surprising given the Government’s propensity for making policy ‘on the hoof’ and their derision about the idea of evidence based policy making.

There are no good grounds for privatising prisons.  It seems to me that the Government can only be motivated by a commitment to privatisation, or a desire to see less Government responsibility, or to see cuts in workers’ wages and conditions, or all of these.

The speakers yesterday identified a range of significant concerns – reductions in staffing levels, worse outcomes for prisoner rehabilitation, reduced safety for prisoners, corrections staff and the public and reductions in staff wages and conditions (for a job most of us would understand is very difficult).

For these reasons and because I believe that something as fundamental as removing a person’s liberty has to be the responsibility of a democratic and accountable Government I oppose the privatisation of prisons.  Private companies are not accountable to anyone except their shareholders, usually for the maximisation of profit.

Prisons are about people not profit - prisoners and their families, corrections staff and their families and us, the public.  Please join the campaign to oppose the privatisation of prisons.

Tags: , ,
Filed under: law and order
13 Comments

Iwi Owned Prisons

Posted by Kelvin Davis on August 5th, 2009

I was on Native Affairs Monday night talking about iwi owning prisons.

Here’s some reasons I’m against this, in no particular order.

  1. Private prisons are not about rehabilitation, they are about business, business is about making profits, I object to Maori making money from locking their whanau up.
  2. Iwi owned prisons mean that Maoris now have a price on their heads and will be worth more to their iwi locked up than on the outside.
  3. The worse the crime, the longer the sentence, the more money iwi will make locking up their whanau.
  4. I’d rather fundraise by holding a battons up, selling raffles or hangi tickets, even if they only make hundreds of dollars not millions.
  5. We should be addressing the causes of Maori crime such as Maori student underachievement and disengagement from school, lifting poverty, unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, as examples.
  6. There is little to stop the government cutting funds to iwi owned prisons, so iwi get squeezed to cut corners, and when it turns to custard, iwi will be blamed.
  7. As I was told up in Ngati Hine early Monday morning – we should be owning universities not prisons.
  8. Kaupapa Maori can work in a public prison just the same as a private prison.
  9. If private prisons is the answer, then the wrong question is being asked.
  10. Just because Maori can own prisons, does it mean they should. Locking up whanau for profit is anti Maori.
  11. There is little incentive to report problems because iwi who own the prisons may lose their lucrative contracts, and they’ll have to go back to battons up, selling raffles and hangi tickets.
Tags:
Filed under: M?ori
18 Comments