Opinion- Are more prisons the solution to a growing prison population problem?

The Corrections Minister announced a few weeks ago that we were set to spend over a billion dollars building more prisons (or extending existing prisons) to house a growing prison population.  This is in addition to the use of double bunking which is now quite  common-place.  The given reason is to house remand prisoners who would normally be in police cells but I think that disguises the fact that the basic prison population is growing faster than the general population.

The most disturbing element is that the proportion of the population in prison in New Zealand is significantly greater than in similar developed countries like the US and Australia, and there is no reason at present to think that disparity will not grow.

So why do so many New Zealanders end up  in prison compared to other countries?  Points that come quickly to mind are:

  • fenceThe political significance of law and order issues when elections roll around. No party is prepared to be seen as “soft” on law and order.
  • The undoubted ethnic element: the proportion of Maori in the prison population is far higher than any other ethnic group and that has an impact on the overall numbers.
  • Our poor record when it comes to rehabilitation.

I think too a factor is that we are too quick to criticise judges when they give non-custodial sentences.  This puts all judges under more pressure to taken the prison option.

Now without doubt there are some criminals who should be imprisoned and there are some who most us would be happy to lock away for life.  Habitual sex offenders and paedophiles, and criminals who kill or habitually use extreme violence without remorse would come near the top of the list.

But there must surely be a large number of marginal cases where a prison sentence just provides an opportunity to learn how to be a better criminal, rather than using different approaches which might change behaviour for the better.

I have no expertise in the field and don’t know what the answer might be.  What I do know is that we are on a trend which is increasingly costly and which is wasting too many lives.  Building more and more prisons is definitely not the answer.

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This is another of Bas Walker’s posts on GrownUps.  Please look out for his articles, containing his Beachside Ponderings.