They fly in the face of evidence and criminal justice practice. Scaremongering in an election year is sadly predictable.
I have yet to see a person thrive via being punished. Redemption is about belief, hope and opportunity.
Those who are deterred by prison are those who will never see the inside of one.
Those who end up in prison have common experiences of deprivation, poverty, abuse and family dysfunction. They commonly have mental health issues, learning deficits, disabilities and head injuries. They have left school early, and turned to drugs and alcohol early to numb their failures in life.
They did not choose the hand they were dealt as children. Dr Ian Lambie’s work on the school-to-prison pipeline says it all. The solutions are in addressing issues around health, education, housing and poverty.
Getting tough on crime may give the community a short reprieve, but until we get real and look at how we are failing as a society, New Zealand will not lower its crime rates.
The damage these policies would do is devastating.
They would prevent ground-breaking pilots such as the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Court, the New Beginnings Court for homeless people, the court for those with mental illness and the Family Violence Court, as well as the Youth Court and Young Adult Court initiatives from operating.
The model is one of rehabilitation and redemption. Discounts to ensure these graduates can reintegrate into society and not re-offend are to be protected, not discarded. The 40 per cent cap on discounts would take these world-leading initiatives to their knees.
More importantly, the ambition to “get tough on crime” and ensure “harsher penalties” will not reduce crime. The punishment of people who have known only harm, pain and deprivation will not change them.
Society needs to decide what it wants - if it is to prevent crime, we need to lean in and ask: How are we failing? How can we help?
On a practical level, these policies will increase prison populations. Quite how Luxon proposes to staff his mega-prisons defies logic.
The great irony is that there are currently insufficient prison officers to run our prisons without breaching fundamental human rights which are protected both in domestic and international law. Does anyone wonder how these damaged humans will behave when they are released back into the community without the help or support to build a pro-social life?
I advocate for prisoner rights because we all deserve to have contributing members of society. At $193,000 a year to house a prisoner, it defies logic that we cannot provide support in the community to rehabilitate prisoners and help them build new lives. From a purely financial perspective, it’s a no-brainer.
At its heart, Luxon’s policy ‘others’ criminals. Offenders are inevitably victims first.
Their backgrounds, as set out in Section 27 cultural reports, detail lives pre-determined by poverty, deprivation and abuse, often at the hands of the state and beginning in childhood. Offenders do not choose the families they are born into.
I wonder, somewhat ironically, whether offenders will be the recipients of increased funding for victims? Gang membership is a sad but inevitable solution to those separated from family and seeking a sense of belonging in our society. Anger is a physical expression of pain.
The answer, I suggest, lies lie in acknowledging common humanity rather than making this about ‘them’ and ‘us’. A model where we look for real solutions which involves helping people who are suffering serves us all: Victims. Offenders. Society. Humanity.
Emma Priest is a criminal barrister at the newly formed Augusta Chambers in Auckland.
