Tamatha Paul has expressed “regret” about a claim she made on social media that the “vast majority” of people in prison are there for non-violent offences.
The Greens’ Tamatha Paul has expressed “regret” about a claim she made on social media that the “vast majority” of people in prison are there for non-violent offences that they’ve “had to do as a response to poverty”.
Police and Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell has described comments in her video as “total nonsense” and an “insult” to New Zealanders who have been victimised by those in prison.
Paul, a Green MP since 2023 and former Wellington City councillor, posted a video on TikTok yesterday to make the point that it was “unhelpful” to compare the Government-funded school lunches to those served in prison.
Maybe if we stopped wasting money imprisoning people, especially on non-violent charges, we could use that money to make sure kids had mean kai when they go to school
“So things that they’ve had to do as a response to poverty, such as stealing food or being dishonest, or they don’t have an address to get community sentencing or bail, so they have to be in prison,” the Green MP said in the video, which has been viewed more than 30,000 times.
She went on to say most people are in prison because of disabilities, conditions like fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and undiagnosed autism or ADHD.
“They’re being punished for being disabled, they’re being punished for being poor, they’re being punished for being Māori, they’re being punished for our system that we have in our country.”
Tamatha Paul's video has been viewed tens of thousands of times. Photo / Georgina Campbell
The Herald asked Paul about her claim that the “vast majority” of those in prison were there for non-violent offences.
In a statement, she said the point of the video is “comparing the quality of food served in prisons to that of school lunches ignores that nutritious kai is a human right for everyone”.
“I regret if my over-emphasis detracted from this core point. Aotearoa deserves a government focused on addressing the core drivers of crime, and a justice system that actually serves our communities.”
Looking at Corrections’ latest quarterly prison statistics for December 2024 (which includes remand prisoners), the top three offence categories are sexual assault (20.7%), acts intended to cause injury (20.5%), and unlawful entry with intent/burglary (10.6%). Homicide makes up 8.4%.
Other offences listed include illicit drug offences (9.6%), robbery, extortion (6.2%), offences against justice (5.8%), theft (4.9%) and abduction, harassment (3.6%).
Corrections data on offence type for December 2024.
Previous Justice documents have highlighted that most people in prison have committed serious offences. For example, a 2022 Justice Long-term Insights Briefing said, “most people serving sentences in prison have been convicted of serious sexual or violent offending”.
Mitchell said Paul’s description of why people were in prison was “total nonsense from the Greens”.
“This is an insult to the thousands of Kiwis who were victimised by those in prison and all of the people working in our justice system to keep us safe. Prisoners are in prison because they have broken the law.”
Paul previously received criticism for sharing a social media post from a state care survivor that suggested a participant of the Government’s military-style academy pilot died “in the newly established bootcamps”. She later said she was wanting to amplify the individual’s voice as an abuse survivor, but acknowledged the death happened as a result of a car accident.
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.
