Overcrowded jails spark inquiry call

The prison muster crisis could be solved by giving hundreds of low-level criminals community sentences instead of ploughing millions of dollars into more jails, says the Prison Fellowship.

It wants a comprehensive public debate or Royal Commission on the issue and believes it is time politicians agreed to avoid using the subject as a political football aimed at instilling fear in the public.

The fellowship is a Christian-based organisation focused on criminal justice and its board includes former Governor-General Paul Reeves, former Police Commissioner John Jamieson, former Race Relations Conciliator Greg Fortuin, Judge Stan Thorburn and former Corrections Assistant Secretary Kim Workman.

The country's prisons have regularly overflowed over the past two years, with musters much higher than predicted. Inmates are frequently placed in prison and court cells and last month a muster of 7547 saw inmates being held in vans.

New Zealand has one of the highest imprisonment rates in the developed world and it is increasing - as is the prison-building programme.

Last financial year the imprisonment rate saw 164 people out of every 100,000 jailed. Australia and Canada imprison about 115 people per 100,000, with Britain about 125.

Mr Workman said the prison population had been rising by about 200 a year, but in the past two years it was up by about 1200 a year. This was despite a significant drop in the crime rate - down 4.7 per cent last year. The Government frequently cites sentencing law changes as the reason, but Mr Workman said it was more likely a reflection of the way judges, nervous about the political climate, were interpreting it.

A spokeswoman for Justice Minister Mark Burton said in a written statement that he "shares some of Mr Workman's concerns. He agrees that there is a real need to look at credible ways of punishing people who commit crimes, but in ways that protects public safety and enhances communities, and in the longer term limits re-offending".

The Herald was unable to clarify if this meant Mr Burton supported the call for a widespread debate or inquiry, or if he believed fewer people should be sent to jail.