Fear can buy you some votes

Mark Dawson, Editor of Wanganui Chronicle

Law and order often raises its head come election time, and the ACT party has dived in with new leader Jamie Whyte advocating a "three strikes" law for burglary.

It's a typical hard-right gambit designed to get a knee-jerk reaction from those who have been victims of crime and to massage the ego of lobby groups like the Sensible Sentencing Trust. Fear can be sold, and it can buy you votes.

We already have a "three strikes" law for violent crime ushered in by Act as part of a coalition deal. Some proclaim its success; others disagree. The jury is out.

But there is a growing case for a different kind of law and order policy as highlighted by Corrections Minister Anne Tolley's visit to Whanganui Prison last week.

Tolley was quick to emphasise the Release-to-Work programme, which sees prisoners get work experience for when they return to society, and other initiatives aimed at reducing offending and giving inmates options to a life of crime.

While you are never going to straighten out every hardened crim, turning more of them into decent citizens seems a much worthier aim than seeing how many you can stuff behind bars and how long you can keep them there.

The United States boasts the world's highest per capita prison population and anyone who watched Trevor McDonald's recent television series will know that the policy there has been to lock them up and throw away the key.

Thousands are in jail with no chance of ever getting out, yet the crime rate in the States is still among the worst.

So let's hear about some policies to boost rehabilitation programmes, take out the fear factor and acknowledge that crime is actually decreasing.

It's a worldwide trend, largely down to technological advances that have boosted security, making it harder to steal things.

In New Zealand, youth crime is down 27 per cent this year and Principal Youth Court Judge Andrew Becroft credits, not more punitive measures like "three strikes", but by avoiding criminal prosecutions and using restorative justice practices.