prison

After a year of data-driven social reform, National heads to boot camp

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Boot camps, parental fines… how on earth do these policies fit the social policy framework of the National government in 2017? Simon Wilson takes a look at what the prime minister and his cabinet colleagues have been saying this year. On 14 May, prime minister Bill English told a conference of the National Party faithful … Read more

National’s plan to send children to boot camps is their most anti-evidence policy yet

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National today announced a policy package aimed at preventing youth crime, including a plan to send ‘youth offenders’ to boot camps. The Morgan Foundation head researcher and Spinoff Parents science expert Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw explains why this is a terrible idea. Perhaps Bill English and other people in the National Party do not intend to … Read more

Kelvin Davis is NZ’s best hope for prison reform in decades

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New Zealand’s prison population is ballooning, and no politician seems to have any good plan to stop it – except Labour deputy leader Kelvin Davis, writes Di White. For almost two decades there has been a ring fence around prison policy in New Zealand. It’s a high fence – you can’t climb over it by … Read more

How Arthur Taylor is taking on the government from prison – and winning

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In 2016 notorious criminal Arthur Taylor successfully challenged the government’s blanket ban on prisoners voting in elections. In 2018 the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s ruling that the ban is inconsistent with the Bill of Rights, however Justice Minister Andrew Little has said changing the law is currently ‘not a priority’. In 2017 … Read more

‘Inmates behave because they actually like being here’: what I learned at a Norwegian prison

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There are plenty of lessons for New Zealand’s criminal justice system to be drawn from the Scandinavian approach, writes Max Harris in this edited excerpt from his new book The New Zealand Project. An increasing number of New Zealanders accept that our criminal justice system – and our approach to imprisonment – is broken. Bill … Read more

Yes, bed restraints were overused in some prisons. No, it wasn’t ‘torture’

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An Ombudsman’s report revealed some serious issues with the use of tie-down beds in New Zealand’s prisons. What it didn’t show was that their use amounts to torture, says Corrections Chief Custodial Officer Neil Beales. Roger Brooking’s opinion piece published on The Spinoff yesterday says that prisoners are tortured in New Zealand. He is wrong: … Read more

NZers are being tortured and we don’t care – because they’re prisoners, and prisoners aren’t really human

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After a brief flurry of media interest, the revelation that prisoners had been tied to their beds for up to 16 hours a day has quickly faded from the public consciousness. But that’s par for the course when prison inmates are routinely dehumanised, says Roger Brooking. Three weeks ago, the Ombudsman Peter Boshier issued a … Read more

‘Risk prevention’ just won’t wash. Torture in prisons is torture, and we need to act now

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The use of ‘degrading’ and ‘dehumanising’ restraints in New Zealand prisons has been found by the Ombudsman’s Office to breach the UN Convention on Torture. This is no time to be making excuses, writes Elizabeth Stanley. In New Zealand, “At Risk Units” hold prisoners who are considered at risk of suicide or self-harm. They are … Read more

Substance abuse affects 90% of prison inmates. Why are they being fobbed off with unqualified addiction counsellors?

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Addressing addiction issues in prison is one of the best ways we have to drastically cut reoffending rates. If only Corrections took the problem as seriously as it deserves, writes Wellington addiction counsellor Roger Brooking. In April last year, Radio New Zealand reported that the Corrections Department was paying for non-existent alcohol and drug counsellors. The … Read more

Lock ’em up and throw away the solutions that might actually work

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The billions being poured into police and prisons would be better spent on demonstrably effective social policies, but the evidence suggests early interventions towards the most vulnerable children may not be in their best interests, writes criminologist Elizabeth Stanley. Prime minister Bill English attached himself to well-trodden law and order election politics earlier this month, … Read more

Let’s stop pouring money into prisons. They don’t work. And there is an alternative

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As New Zealand’s prison population passes 10,000 for the first time, the abysmal failure of NZ’s imprisonment culture must be confronted. Ahead of a hui in Wellington tonight, Di White argues for a new approach Imagine this: it’s 2016 and the government has announced a $1 billion package to build a new cancer treatment facility … Read more

In the US, our incarceration mania is a catastrophe – why on earth would New Zealand try to copy it?

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Three American prison experts were in NZ when Judith Collins announced a $1bn boost to the corrections department and 1,800 more jail beds. Expansion of an approach that even Bill English calls a ‘moral and fiscal failure’ is a huge mistake, write Erica Meiners, Isaac Ontiveros and Rachel Herzing. And, below, a statement from the … Read more

Corrections and clarifications – unpicking Judith Collins’ prison number explanations

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Opinion: the minister’s tough-on-crime agenda is at odds with much of the wider direction on justice and corrections, writes Di White. “Explaining” is not a mode politicians tend to enjoy. Following the release of new figures that show the prison population at a record high, the recently reappointed Minister of Corrections, Judith Collins, went into … Read more