Tonight, Māori Television’s award-winning current affairs series, TE AO WITH MOANA, asks what has been done to address the ongoing catastrophe that is the treatment of Māori under our justice system –
at 8.00 PM on MĀORI TELEVISION.
Our criminal justice system is broken. We still jail more of our men than almost any other country in the developed
world. The rate at which our women are being imprisoned has risen in the past few years. The proportion of wāhine Māori
in prison, at 60 per cent is even higher than for Māori men.
When Labour took office in September 2017 the prison population was 10,470. There were promises to do things
differently. However, while prisoner numbers have fallen, the number of incarcerated Māori remains utterly
disproportionate to our population.
Every single report and review commissioned in recent years has called for major reforms, for greater Māori oversight
and cultural engagement. And where there have been changes, there is a discernible difference.
But it’s still not enough to change the overall statistics.
Tonight, TE AO WITH MOANA goes to jail. We sit down for a kōrero with inmates and guards. And Moana sits down with Hon. Kelvin Davis.
TE AO WITH MOANA – Monday at 8.00 PM on Māori Television.