Seventy per cent of those in prison have difficulty reading and writing. Photo / File
Seventy per cent of those in prison have difficulty reading and writing. Photo / File
"IT'S what you learn after you know it all that really counts" is a quote that was shared with me this week at the Justice Summit, which is aimed at a safe and effective justice system.
The reason for the summit is obvious, because the system is certainly unsafe for those who are victimised and revictimised because courts and prisons are not dealing with them in a way that turns them away from crime.
Sixty per cent of those released from prison are reconvicted within two years. The waiting times for trials are growing longer, those trials take more time to hear and there are more offenders pleading not guilty.
The defendant may wait the same amount of time and, depending on the charge, likely wait unconvicted in prison with nothing to incentivise living a better life.
For sexual assault matters, less than 1 per cent result in a conviction. The clear majority of complainants suffering sexual assault say they would never complain again because of the lack of safety in the process.
Many sex offenders are likely to be released at the end of the trial into the community with no remediation and likely to reoffend. That is not safe.
The lag time between complaint and resolution is also ineffective.
The high recidivism rate is another indicator of a system that doesn't work.
With the best will in the world on behalf of those charged with running a smooth justice system, they are scuttled by a lack of political will across parties and a sceptical and cynical public who believe their own experiences and intuition — no matter how far removed from a direct connect with the system — trump evidence-based research.
What was described in the Justice Summit as the "big brown elephant in the room" is over-representation because the justice system, from investigation to sentencing and incarceration, is racially skewed.
At 16 per cent of the general population, Māori make up 51 per cent of the incarcerated population and 65 per cent of the female prisoners. Sixty-three per cent of Māori are reconvicted as opposed to 49 per cent of non-Māori.
Forty-one per cent are reimprisoned as opposed to 31 per cent of non-Māori. A young Maori male has a better chance of going to jail than achieving Level 3 NCEA.
Chester Borrows
What we know about people in prisons:
77 per cent have experienced violence
53 per cent of women and 15 per cent of men have been sexually assaulted
75 per cent of women and 61 per cent men have a diagnosable mental illness
