In the wake of the decision to scrap the proposed mega-prison at Waikeria, the 'get tough' brigade are banging the law and order drum. They say putting record numbers of New Zealanders in prison has made the country safer. They are wrong.
Crime rates have been falling for 30 years, not only in New Zealand, but throughout the English-speaking countries and Western Europe. The trend has nothing to do with imprisonment. Crime fell in America, which built the largest prison system in the world, but also in Finland and the Netherlands, where imprisonment was cut considerably.
America debunks the assumption that more prisons means less crime. Crime is falling most dramatically in states that are reforming and lowering prison numbers, as Labour is proposing here. Vermont cut the prison population almost a quarter between 2010 and 2015 and crime dropped a third. In New Jersey, incarceration and crime both fell 20 per cent.
Garth McVicar says prisons keep us safe by locking away the "bad buggers." But they are an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff, the intervention comes too late, when the police arrive the damage has already been done. And the prisoner eventually gets released, often deeply scarred by the experience and more dangerous than before.
More importantly, the "bad bugger" has probably been homeless and suffers with untreated addiction and mental health problems. They likely come from a community with many police and few living wage jobs. Our massive investment in prisons has been coupled with systemic under-investment in the social supports that prevent violence.
