Rethinking Crime and Punishment Releases Major Report “Doing Good Justice in Bad Times”

A major policy report released today, tackles key issues facing the criminal justice system. “Doing Good Justice in Bad Times – Toward a Fiscally Responsible Criminal Justice Strategy”, has been released in response to the rising costs of justice, caused primarily by prison becoming the sentence of default.

Kim Workman, Director of Rethinking Crime and Punishment, said the report is timely.

“Only last week, the Minister of Finance, the Hon Bill English, stunned participants at a Families Commission conference, when he referred to prisons as a ‘moral and fiscal failure’. He made it clear that while New Zealanders wanted protection, they didn’t want a prison colony”.

“In the last five years prison conditions have deteriorated steadily, resulting in a rise in the recidivism rate for released prisoners. Our report tackles most of the key issues, and is a response to the conditions highlighted by Mr English”.

“The report does not propose a radical reform of the criminal justice system. None of the proposals for change is untried; none has been found wanting. All are evidence-based and linked to an understanding of what works in criminal justice. Every one of our recommendations has been implemented successfully by other nations faced with serious fiscal difficulty. “

We propose a strategy for New Zealand that includes the following initiatives:
• defining what is meant by ‘public safety’
• focusing on low-level, repeat offending
• strengthening and expanding community sentencing options
• implementing a comprehensive prisoner reintegration strategy
• addressing Māori overrepresentation in the criminal justice system
• supporting the Drivers of Crime strategy
• promoting community-based offender transformation
• backing whānau, family and community engagement
• establishing a community justice strategy
• achieving community justice through justice reinvestment.

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