Media Release : Judith Collins and Women’s Refuge – ‘Doing a Katie Bradford’

Date : 30th July 2014

Content:

In Rethinking’s latest blog; http://blog.rethinking.org.nz/2014/07/judith-collins-and-womens-refuge.html Kim Workman suggests that Ms Collins treatment of the Women’s Refuge in a recent Q and A interview, could spark a new slang term in the national lexicon – ‘Doing a Katie Bradford’.

The interview suggested that other women won’t go into the refuges because they accept women from gangs. There is no basis at all for that view, says Kim Workman.

“When you track the Minister’s views about crime and punishment over the last six years, one of the stand out messages is that some people are’ born bad’, and should not be spoken to – she counts gang members amongst that group.”

“Recent research shows that people who have that view, favour harsher punishments for crimes and decreased support for criminal rehabilitation. Follow-up studies corroborate these findings, and are able to predict the degree to which participants perceive the world to be dangerous and vile, and the perceived need for preemptive and militant aggression to control behaviour “

“When personal opinions of that kind influence public policy, the result can increase the likelihood of reoffending, rather than reduce it. It results in the emergence of policies and practices which attack the dignity and mana of offenders and prisoners; proposals for military style boot-camps for young offenders, the use of shipping containers as cells, doubling up of cells, increased lockdown hours, increased surveillance and control, and a risk-centric approach which treats prisoners and offenders as objects rather than people who are capable of transformation.”

“If a society cannot guarantee the equal worth of all its citizens, it cannot expect that all citizens will feel they have an equal stake in abiding by the law. Justice must be administered fairly, and promote confidence in the criminal justice system”.

Reference: http://blog.rethinking.org.nz/2014/07/judith-collins-and-womens-refuge.html

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