Saturday 16 June 2018

If Labour Wants Fewer Prisoners, Then It Needs To Create More Prison Space – Not Less.

He Should Be Locked Up: To hear Kelvin Davis acknowledge that it may soon be necessary to put prisoners on mattresses on the floor was sickening. That a Labour cabinet minister is willing to countenance the New Zealand prison system becoming indistinguishable from the Third World hellholes visited by Ross Kemp’s “Extreme World” TV show, marks a new low for what is already a sadly compromised party.

STUPIDITY ON STILTS. How else should the decision-making on Waikeria Prison be characterised. From practically every perspective, the Labour-led government’s determination not to proceed with the construction of a new 3,000-bed “mega-prison” was flawed. Most particularly (and most worryingly) it demonstrated the Cabinet’s inability to think politically. And, when your business is politics-at-the-highest-level, that’s a very serious flaw indeed.

Let’s begin from where we are right now. New Zealand’s current prison muster has never been higher. In a nation of just 4.7 million it has topped 10,000 – making New Zealanders one of the most incarcerated peoples in the OECD.

The consequences of this rapid rise in prisoner numbers is that the country’s existing prisons are already dangerously over-crowded. The acute lack of space has already led to the introduction of double-bunking (thank you Judith Collins) and to prisoners being locked in their cells for extended periods. Not surprisingly, these conditions have led to an increase in the number of prisoner-on-prisoner and prisoner-on-guard assaults, as well as to a sharp spike in the number of prisoner suicides.

If there’s one thing that would really help New Zealand’s prisoners; its prison guards; and, ultimately, it’s people as a whole; it would be to increase the amount of prison space dramatically. It is only after the Department of Corrections takes possession of enough state-of-the-art “correctional facilities” to humanely house not only its current, but also its projected muster, that any kind of serious discussion about prisoner rehabilitation can begin.

While prisoners are being double-bunked, locked in their cells 22 hours a day, and denied access to the sort of medical, educational and vocational services most of them need, all talk of rehabilitation is not only meaningless – it’s mendacious.

To hear Kelvin Davis acknowledge that it may soon be necessary to put prisoners on mattresses on the floor was sickening. That a Labour cabinet minister is willing to countenance the New Zealand prison system becoming indistinguishable from the Third World hellholes visited by Ross Kemp’s “Extreme World” TV show, marks a new low for what is already a sadly compromised party.

But, what else could he say? The botched compromise he’d just announced: a new 500-bed prison at Waikeria incorporating a 100-bed mental health facility; will not admit its first inmate until 2022. By which time the muster is unlikely to have fallen appreciably and chronic overcrowding will still be making bad men worse.

That’s why it is so dishonest of the Labour-led government to talk about its long-term (15 years!) goal of reducing New Zealand’s prison muster by 30 percent. The last political party to be in power continuously for 15 years was “King Dick” Seddon’s Liberals. Back in the days when politicians wore top-hats and spats.

The only way a political party can talk about a 15-year-plan for reducing prisoner numbers by 30 percent with any semblance of credibility is after it has already succeeded in forging a broad bi-partisan consensus on all the major issues relating to crime and punishment. While Labour remains unmoved by the electorate’s strong emotional attachment to the arguments of the Sensible Sentencing Trust: i.e. that the perpetrators of horrendous crimes must be kept as far away from society as possible, for as long as possible; no such consensus is possible.

A good first-step for Labour would be an open acknowledgement that in all societies there is an irreducible number of bad bastards who must be caught, convicted and locked away. In matters of crime and punishment it is also important to acknowledge that the government’s highest priority should always be the safety of the public. Prisons may represent, as Bill English noted, both a fiscal and a moral failure, but this side of the Second Coming they are failures that cannot be avoided.

It is only after the public has been convinced of a party’s commitment to their safety that the conversation about crime and punishment can be extended to embrace the broader questions of rehabilitation and crime prevention. Advances in both these areas stand a much better chance of being achieved when the effort is concentrated within the prison system itself. Creating the necessary settings for such activity will, paradoxically, require the creation of more correctional space – not less.

In other words, if Labour’s long-term goal is to reduce the size of the New Zealand prison system, then its short-term priority must be to expand it.

New Zealanders will only believe in rehabilitation when they are presented with irrefutable evidence of its success. When prisoners’ physical and mental health problems are treated professionally and effectively. When they are taught to read, write and count well enough to pass the written driving test. When the people released from this country’s prisons stay released.

Only then will the prison muster fall and the resulting savings be seen to exceed the money spent on providing the space and services needed to reduce New Zealand’s appalling incarceration rate.

This essay was originally posted on The Daily Blog of Friday, 15 June 2018.

9 comments:

Guerilla Surgeon said...

I think the number of irredeemable "bad bastards" is relatively small. There used to be and possibly still is a unit in Porirua, which housed the "criminally insane who should never be released". And of course we have Paremoremo. This is an area where we should be spending money, because every reformed criminals saves us what? $30,000 a year? But unfortunately good old Laura as a firm grasp on the goolies of the conservatives, and every time we try to do something constructive Laura gives a squeeze and they start squeaking. I must confess, I can't see an answer to this at present. But then I can't see a coherent narrative coming from Labour on this issue either. I suspect they fear for their goolies as well.

Bonzo said...

Seems entirely reasonable to start building facilities that have the capacity to begin changing the focus of the prison service towards rehabilitation.

On the other hand you could read the comments on this article on The Daily Blog and just hold your head in your hands and weep. You must have the QWERTY keys embedded in your forehead from banging your head on the desk in sheer frustration!

Anonymous said...

If 3000 beds is to much, and it probably is, just build 3 1000 bed or six 500 bed facilities. If the space is there it just boils down to Architecture. Perhaps, in fact, that is what has been designed but the politicians are too cognitively taxed by politics to look at the plans or have them explained.

Kat said...

Why does NZ have the highest incarceration rate per population in the OECD. What came first the prison or the prisoner. Are you suggesting the morphing of prisons into learning and health institutions. Which hospital and which university are you suggesting should be transferred to corrections. Or should we just build a purpose "secure" health and education unit instead of a "mega prison".

What about heading the future majority of the problem off at the pass and reinstate a 21st century ministry of works.

What about listening to what Andrew Little is actually saying.

Bonzo said...

It seems perfectly reasonable that if you want to move to a more rehabilitative focus on incarceration you would need the space and facilities to achieve that.

I saw this posted on the Daily Blog and was blown away by the response. You must spend a lot of time banging your head into your keyboard.

Jens Meder said...

Good on you, Chris.
But perhaps Kelvin Davis deserves credit for revealing the need for something that Labour Party policy did not foresee ?

Michael Smythe said...

Unlike Trotter I value a government that is willing to actually lead - to confront problems and seek evidence-based solutions. It is politically sound to actually do the job we pay them for. Trotter appears to applaud the lowest common denominator approach which solves nothing leads to problems accumulating then costing more to fix later. And then there is the human factor ...

greywarbler said...

While prisoners are being double-bunked, locked in their cells 22 hours a day, and denied access to the sort of medical, educational and vocational services most of them need, all talk of rehabilitation is not only meaningless – it’s mendacious...

To hear Kelvin Davis acknowledge that it may soon be necessary to put prisoners on mattresses on the floor was sickening. That a Labour cabinet minister is willing to countenance the New Zealand prison system becoming indistinguishable from the Third World hellholes visited by Ross Kemp’s “Extreme World” TV show, marks a new low for what is already a sadly compromised party.

But, what else could he say? The botched compromise he’d just announced: a new 500-bed prison at Waikeria incorporating a 100-bed mental health facility; will not admit its first inmate until 2022. By which time the muster is unlikely to have fallen appreciably and chronic overcrowding will still be making bad men worse.


I think that you set up the target point for Labour to aim at Chris.
The present crisis must be dealt with. 2022 is too far away. This is a time for going to Parliament on urgency and resetting the imprisonment laws. Reduce the number now going into prison on bail waiting for a Court hearing - using it as a timeout for those who haven't a record of repeat serious offences. (Three strikes records would be effective here, past Serious Offences are informative of likely future behaviour.)

Leave in prison the mentally unstable, chronically threatening others freedoms, vicious and violent, and put on home detention along with demanding educational and skills plans with strictly enforced learning, reflecting, goal-setting for prisoners needing and receptive to correction. Car stealing, driving offences, drug and alcohol influenced crimes, debt prisoners (so Dickensian), fraud prisoners (mendacious, put them onto registers of financial criminals and make them study how to conduct business with good faith and integrity). Also young people - send them away from their peers and familiar homeground for a new start that work with their minds and bodies enabling them to show their strengths.

If Housing NZ can use motels for accommodation, so can the Corrections Department. The people above amenable to correction can live in them while they do their training, study whatever they feel may suit them,
after which a period of trialling jobs within the 90 day scheme would give them a real outcome to all the learning. Employers can do this, they need to front up with responsibility to assist government since they have been given so many concessions by government. Some pastoral care after the effort prisoners put in to literacy, aspirational thinking, turning their lives around would make them feel worthy and keep feeling that way. Self-respect rather than shallow self esteem is the watchword.

All these prisoners not incarcerated to attend training establishments and be tutored through their study or physical working learnings with prison as a stick to encourage stickability. Back at prison there would be strict lock-down and isolation for a week to try and keep them safe and away from the prison miasma which seems to increase criminality, and ultimately should be just for the repeat recalcitrant prisoners.

greywarbler said...

Some facts from a google search:
This looking at Norway and United States spending.
https://www.cheatsheet.com/money-career/3-reasons-why-norways-prison-system-should-not-be-replicated-in-america.html/?a=viewall

Norway is rich and regularly ranks among the top five countries in the world’s per capita gross domestic product. This results in a much bigger outlay per prisoner. Again, to reference the Times story: Norway spends approximately $93,000 per prisoner.

In comparison, the United States spends $31,000 per prisoner. Thus, the United States needs a complex cocktail of reduction of low inequality, high per capita, and social welfare to imitate Norway’s prison systems.


The Howard League in 2015 on costs per prisoner in NZ. If Norway is spending $93,000 per prisoner with their results, surely we can do better on our expenditure. Their figures may be expressed in USA$ but I think the question is valid.
http://www.howardleague.org.nz/blog/the-state-of-the-nations-prisons

The average annual cost for a prisoner is $90,936 (as of 2011 – this may have increased but such data is rarely published), or $249 per day. Monitored home detention costs approximately $21,000 per year, or $58 a day. For those serving other community based sentences, such as community service or community programmes, these costs are much lower.

Some relevant NZ statistics:
http://www.corrections.govt.nz/resources/research_and_statistics/quarterly_prison_statistics/prison_stats_june_2017.html

Recent on Scoop:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1806/S00145/tough-on-crime-or-smart-on-crime-the-end-of-an-era.htm