There's a change in the air at Waikeria Prison, with the feeling that a switch has been turned on the way the Department of Corrections facility is traditionally run. Read more

This comes after Newshub Nation obtained a dossier of documents that gives the biggest insight yet into radical plans to overhaul the justice system. Continue reading

Peter Dunne says that for at least the last 30 years it has been virtually impossible to have a rational political debate about law and order.

And he says that, without decisive political leadership, the fallacy of building more prisons to keep people safe while crime continues to fall will remain the default position.

In his weekly political column on Newsroom, Dunne points out that since 1990 New Zealand's population has increased by 46 percent.

At the same time, the prison population has grown by 129 percent.

And the overall crime rate has been declining steadily since the 1980s.

"That leaves us in the perverse situation of fewer crimes, including violent crimes, being committed; but more and more people ending up in prison," Dunne says.

He says the focus has to be singleminded - ensuring fewer people are sent to prison, and that our internationally very high imprisonment rate is steadily reduced.

Dunne has some suggestions about what should be done - including:

• Making greater use of bail and home detention for remand prisoners
• Looking at the types of crime for which people are being imprisoned, and whether there are better alternatives
• Looking at the sentencing options currently available to the Courts
• Seeing if judges should have more flexibility
• Getting rid of "frankly silly populist and unsuccessful measures" like the "three strikes" law
• Looking more seriously at marae-based justice and sentencing for Maori offenders

Dunn concedes it is comparatively easy to state what needs to be done.

He knows it will harder to make it happen.

The public flashpoint on law and order issues is extremely sensitive.

Source

• newsroom.co.nz
• Image: corrections.govt.nz

At a meeting with representatives of the International Association of Penal Law last week, the Pope denounced what he called "penal populism".

This promises to solve society's problems by punishing crime instead of pursuing social justice.

Pope Francis called on Christians and all people of good will to struggle not only for the elimination of the death penalty, but to also improve prison conditions.

The Pope made a link between this struggle and life imprisonment.

"Life imprisonment is a hidden death penalty," he said.

The Pope noted that the Vatican recently eliminated the death penalty from its own penal code.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, cited by Pope Francis, admits the possibility of the death penalty as a last resort, where this is the only way to protect human lives from an unjust aggressor.

But the Catechism adds that such conditions are very rare, "if not practically non-existent" today.

The Pope said it is impossible to imagine that states cannot use means other than capital punishment.

Yet the death penalty is applied in various ways, often illegally, all over the planet, the Pope noted.

Pope Francis said contemporary societies overuse criminal punishment, partially out of a primitive tendency to offer up "sacrificial victims, accused of the disgraces that strike the community".

The Pope said some politicians and media promote "violence and revenge, public and private, not only against those responsible for crimes, but also against those under suspicion, justified or not".

He denounced a growing tendency to think that most social problems can be resolved through public punishment.

This thinking is characterised by the vain hope that punishment will result in the same benefits brought about by inclusive economic and social reform, he said.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Tablet
• Image: Amnesty International

Justice Minister Judith Collins implied it was ridiculous and suggested this "sort of display" is "why people are leaving the Anglican Church".

Perhaps the symbol of a fenced in cell is upsetting to the journalist and the politician but Bishop Duckworth was just doing his job, albeit in a colourful way.

Last week Anglican churches around the country were focusing on penal reform. We have some serious problems in New Zealand. We incarcerate people at a greater rate than almost all like countries and we have a very high recidivism rate.

This is a problem for all of us because a prison system that is not rehabilitating people becomes a school for further crime. That in turn puts us all at risk.

The bishop's question is, "Do we want a system that simply punishes offenders or do we want one that changes behaviour and leads to less reoffending?"

The time in the cell drew public attention to the question and allowed him a week to contemplate and pray.

We all understand the former. The latter is perhaps a mystery for some, but you have to admit that is what you would expect of a bishop.

So what is the substance? The rate of imprisonment in New Zealand more than doubled from 91 per 100,000 people in 1987 to 197 per 100,000 in 2010. Today's figure shows a small improvement, sitting on 192.

These very high imprisonment rates are well above like countries with the exception of the United States. Britain imprisons 148 per 100,000, Australia 130, Canada 118 and France 105.

The picture gets worse if we look at the imprisonment of Maori. They are imprisoned at a rate of 700 per 100,000, three and a half times more than non- Maori, or over five times more than the total Canadian rate.

So are New Zealand's streets safer as a result of all this very expensive locking up? It does not appear so because the recidivism rates are very disturbing. Around half New Zealand's prisoners (49 per cent) return to prison having reoffended over the four year period after being released.

The figures suggest some smart thinking is needed. We lock up more people than other like countries. We have a shameful ethnic bias within those figures and a very high reoffending rate.

The bishop didn't blame the Government or the justice or correction systems. He stated that his vigil was not a protest. It was a call to think, discuss and act. This problem has grown over the last 25 years under successive governments, but there are hopeful signs within the corrections and justice systems. Continue reading

Sources

• Charles Waldegrave in Stuff
• Image: Anglican Taonga

Charles Waldegrave leads the Anglican Church's family centre social policy research unit.

This week, the Anglican Church is focusing on prisoner rehabilitation and how to stop reoffending with alternatives other than prison.

Bishop Justin preached at the 10am service in the Cathedral on Sunday and then entered the "cell".

He will lead a communion service each day at 12:15pm with an address on the daily focus points.

He will leave the "cell" next Sunday morning.

The Church says the vigil is not a protest against current policies but the Bishop says there are alternatives to prison that are often more effective at reducing crime.

Source

• Radio New Zealand
• TVNZ
• Image: Radio New Zealand

Opening a Families Commission's 50 Key Thinkers forum in May, Mr English referred to prisons as a moral and fiscal failure. In so doing he burst the hot-air cloud of rhetoric and emotion that so often envelops discussions of crime and punishment in this country - and which runs contrary to what much evidence and research reveals about it.

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