Don’t copy Californian Prison System – Rethinking Crime and Punishment

“New Zealand must at all costs, avoid the temptation to follow the Californian penal system in any shape or form”, says Kim Workman, of Rethinking Crime and Punishment. “That includes mandatory sentencing, three strikes legislation, and life without parole. The ultimate consequences of such measures are horrific, and not something that a decent New Zealander would tolerate”.

Kim Workman was commenting on an order last week by three Federal Court judges to the Californian State governor to cut the prison population by a quarter, or about 40,000 prisoners. In the order, they stated that current prison conditions violated the prisoners’ constitutional rights, and that “for at least a decade, inmates had been denied basic medical treatment and mental health care, with consequences that have been serious and often fatal. Many prisoners have died as a result.”

Some prisons are nearly 300 percent capacity, with prisoners sleeping in triple bunk beds placed in gymnasiums and day rooms.

The Judges took the view that the prison population could be pared without endangering public safety, through sentence and parole reform. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to release low – level prisoners early on home detention and send elderly prisoners to medical facilities.

“The New Zealand prison system is at the crossroads” says Kim Workman. “The government is trying to justify double bunking and portable accommodation. It would do well to remember that the Californian system started warehousing offenders in the same way about twenty years ago, and this is the inevitable consequence.

“We can either go down the Californian route, or develop a different strategy, which puts the taxpayer’s money where it can make the most difference. Expanding the prison population is not in anyone’s’ long term interest.”

ENDS

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