By Andrew Laxon
political reporter
Act's tough law and order policy is likely to cost $427 million in extra prison beds and $137 million in running costs each year.
The party is promising to make violent criminals serve at least 80 per cent of their sentences instead of the present two-thirds or even half for sentences of less than 12 months.
But Department of Corrections figures released yesterday by Labour and the Alliance estimate this would increase prison numbers by 55 per cent, from 5005 to 7499.
Labour's justice spokesman, Phil Goff, said the policy would give New Zealand the highest imprisonment rate in the Western world, outside the United States.
It also meant that Act leader Richard Prebble was promising $838 million in extra spending over three years, even though he had promised to cut taxes by billions of dollars.
Mr Prebble said Act's "truth in sentencing" policy would take years to come into effect.
American research also suggested it would cut overall crime by 8 per cent, which would translate to lower imprisonment levels.
But he said even if prison costs increased as the department predicted it would be a small price to pay compared with the costs of releasing prisoners early.
"The average cost of keeping a prisoner in jail is $60,000 to $80,000 a year. An examination of the costs of crime shows that early release prisoners commit $140,000 to $250,000 worth of crime each."
Mr Prebble said Act would pay the extra costs by reducing waste in government departments, which one consultant's study estimated at $100 million a year.
He said Act had commissioned economic forecasters Infometrics to assess the party's plans to cut the top tax rate to 20c within five years.
Act says it can achieve this by capping but not reducing government spending.
