Hon Tony Ryall MP
National Party Law & Order Spokesman

23 January 2005

Labour in dreamland over crime policies

"Labour must be in dreamland if it thinks its soft policies are keeping dangerous criminals off our streets," says National Party Law & Order spokesman Tony Ryall, responding to the latest prison projection numbers.

"The previous projections were 500 short. Labour's simply making amends for last year's muck up.

"The forecast shows a rise of 500 inmates over the next five years and given that in October, the prison population was running nearly 500 ahead of projections, this figure merely takes into account the historical rise.

"This is essentially the status quo.

"Official papers show the clogged court system is partly responsible, with remand prisoners now having to wait much longer before their cases are heard.

"And under Labour, re-offending while on parole continues to increase. That should surely send a message to this Government that they're being far too soft on repeat offenders.

"National will abolish parole for career crims and violent offenders. We will take DNA from every person convicted of a crime and we will employ the extra police needed to catch the crooks." Mr Ryall is urging caution in reading too much into the projections.

Ends

15970 (2004). Hon Tony Ryall to the Minister of Corrections (28 October 2004):
What has been the difference between actual prison muster and the Ministry of Justice prison inmate capacity forecast (December 2003) for each week since 1 January 2004?
Hon Paul Swain (Minister of Corrections) replied: The difference between the Ministry of Justice December 2003 inmate number forecast and the actual prison muster since January 2004 is provided in the attachment.
Attachment to PQ 15970 (2004)
Date Difference Btween MoJ (Dec 03) Forecast and Actual Prison Population
5-Jan-04 214
12-Jan-04 209
19-Jan-04 52
26-Jan-04 156
2-Feb-04 87
9-Feb-04 116
16-Feb-04 128
23-Feb-04 204
1-Mar-04 130
8-Mar-04 168
15-Mar-04 204
22-Mar-04 226
29-Mar-04 229
5-Apr-04 227
13-Apr-04 190
19-Apr-04 181
26-Apr-04 243
3-May-04 105
10-May-04 127
17-May-04 157
24-May-04 208
31-May-04 275
7-Jun-04 246
14-Jun-04 239
21-Jun-04 267
28-Jun-04 296
5-Jul-04 270
12-Jul-04 311
19-Jul-04 361
26-Jul-04 347
2-Aug-04 310
9-Aug-04 311
16-Aug-04 328
23-Aug-04 345
30-Aug-04 394
6-Sep-04 488
13-Sep-04 524
20-Sep-04 467
27-Sep-04 501
4-Oct-04 405
11-Oct-04 483
18-Oct-04 453
25-Oct-04 454

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