The truth about our prison nation

By
Martyn Bradbury
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37
9

Screen-Shot-2013-10-29-at-10.47.50-PM
Older inmate numbers rise
More elderly inmates are facing the prospect of spending their last days in New Zealand prisons.

Corrections Department figures show the number of inmates older than 70 has more than tripled in the past decade, from 35 in 2004 to 123 in 2014.

In the early 2000s Labour needed to prove that they could be just as spiteful and narrow minded on law and order as the National Party and passed a whole raft of raw meat longer and harder sentences to mollify the baying lynch mob. The problem then, as it is now, is that there simply wasn’t the rehabilitation services necessary within prisons to help deal with this sudden increase in numbers. Because sexual offenders often have difficulty admitting their terrible crimes. they refuse to admit their guilt, what this means is that they aren’t eligible for counselling services once inside prison.

The perverse consequences of this is that these sex offenders often now serve their entire sentence without parole and without any rehabilitation whatsoever. What this has led to are Parole Boards terrified of letting sex offenders who have served their full sentence out because they are even more damaged by the long imprisonment than when they went in and because they can’t admit their crimes, they have had no rehabilitation whatsoever. This tsunami of damaged men is desperately trying to be plugged by the current Government who have  passed law to lock these types of offenders up forever.

Let’s just think about that for a second. Sex offender sentenced to 10 years, can’t admit their crime, stay inside for the full 10 years minus any rehabilitation at all, and instead of questioning the wisdom of these extra harsh sentences, our solution is to pass another law locking these offenders up in prison indefinitely well beyond the time they have actually been sentenced for.

You won’t get the mainstreams media explaining this to you as they make far too much money out of their crime porn headlines to pause and critically examine what this tougher law and order  mentality generates.

What exacerbates this is now the Private Prisons who make money the longer prisoners stay inside. Seeing as ACC is a major stake holder in the NZ Private Prison industry, we have a perverse outcome where a Government Department is dependent on incarceration for income.

The reality is that we have created this nightmare and we have created it because NZ simply doesn’t have a mature enough media or mature enough culture to debate the issue minus all the fury and anger whipped up by Politicians and the Sensible Sentencing Trust.

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Our current prison system is producing individuals more damaged than when they went into prison. Well done NZ, excellent social policy there.

The truth is that we are too immature as a country to understand the empire of hate we have built.

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37 COMMENTS

  1. The individuals that are truly damaged are the victims of crime, it is not much of an ask for people not to hurt other members of society, how difficult is it not to murder, rape or assault someone? Not difficult at all, the vast majority of people in NZ manage quite well in that regards but unfortunately we have members of society who behave worse than animals and the solution is simple, they belong in a cage.

  2. I really think people don’t think what happens to the end product of a long term custodial sentence in New Zealand. I always remember a poignant statement from a long term Paremoremo inmate when the government (then Labour) decided to make conditions even more Spartan within the prison. He said something along the lines that these people are going to be your neighbours once they serve their sentence so to treat inmates like animals now mean you are going to have animals as neighbours in the future. He was right then and he is still right now.

    Compare our system to the Scandinavian system where solid rehabilitation practices are in place. Over there they get a better than average chance at a productive citizen at the end of a sentence compared to here where chances at that result are sketchy at best. No one is talking about an easy ride if you commit a crime over there but rather the focus is on the quality of person that comes out at the end.

    That should be our focus in New Zealand – fat chance tho’

    • I always remember a poignant statement from a long term Paremoremo inmate when the government (then Labour) decided to make conditions even more Spartan within the prison.

      I remember that. People were getting pissed off because prisoners were going to be treated humanely. Of course, the reason why a lot of people got pissed off with that was because they, as hard working and solid citizens, weren’t being treated that well by either their bosses or the government.

      They didn’t have underfloor heating, hell, a lot of them probably couldn’t afford heating. They didn’t have the latest flat screen TVs, computers and a chance at a fully paid for degree.

  3. The breakdown of the Mental Health System by the right wing has caused major problems here in NZ. Flawed ideology with out true cost benefit analysis causes huge unaccountable social cost.

    Prisons are purely Universities for Crime and a training ground for our youth to increase their contacts and skill set for when they are released to pursue their criminal careers.

  4. Prisons are an 18th century solution to 18th century problems. The vast majority of the crime in this country is committed by people who have *already* spent time in prison. Which suggests that one of the most effective things we can do to prevent crime is to close prisons, not open new ones, and definitely not make them profitable (the very idea is pure evil).

    I remember back in the late 90s when the Ngawha Prison was being built, Nandor Tanczos asking if there is so much public money sloshing around for building institutional facilities, where was the money to build Northland a new polytech? The cost of keeping a person in prison is many times the cost of creating a public service job as an alternative.

      • Don’t be silly, such reports of corruption would have had them rubbing their hands in glee. Just another source of income for them from their rich mates.

    • Danyl

      Murder, rape, assault etc have been around long before the 18th century, you suggest to prevent crime we should close the prisons? So if someone commits a heinous crime we should not lock them up but instead let them have freedom and liberty something coincidently they denied the victim of crime? Imagine a society where violent people were allowed to roam freely with no consequence for the actions they committed. It would be a horrible society, like something out of the dark ages.

      Steve

      • We’ve got that society. The violent people roaming around with no consequences for their actions wear blue uniforms. The young Maori guy who comes across them at the wrong time can spend 20 years in prison for nothing.

    • Yes Danyl, excellent idea. Let the rapists, murderers, child abusers and other assorted scumbags run around free. Coming to a neighbourhood near you.

  5. Martyn it may be convenient to blame the prison system but recidivist crime is caused by recidivist criminals. I suggest that a 3 strikes law would have the real ratbags locked up for much longer, and considerably alleviate your concerns.

  6. I’m sorry, but I fail to have any sympathy for paedophiles and thus find this blog post completely missed the point.

    Do you know how many violent offenders were once the victims of said pedophiles? I’ve known a few. For some reason they felt safe to open up to me, maybe because they knew I felt angry on their behalf and thus understood why they had the kind of rage that they also did.

    In fact, of nearly a dozen men who I have been close to, who ended up in jail for violent offenses (murder, grievous bodily harm, aggravated robbery, manslaughter), every single one of them had been sexually assaulted as a child,and evevery single one of them was too afraid to speak out because they were ashamed. And so they each carried huge anger and resentment around with them.

    I don’t know why they trusted me to talk to. But they did. But I tell you now: if they hadn’t first been victims of paedophiles in their youth, they wouldn’t have been so angry and so hypermasculine and aggressive to commit the crimes they later did.

    So don’t talk to me about letting sexual offenders run free, as he

  7. Sorry, my phone threw me out before I completed my post.

    Point is, many inmates would benefit hugely from rehabilitation and therapy – including the men I knew.

    But you lost me completely when you extended that sympathy to pedophiles and sex offenders who refuse to acknowledge what they have even done. Such men are half the reason that the other inmates are there in the first place, in my opinion. They are the reason for their anger.

    Do you really think that allowing such men to run free so that they can create more victims, who will grow up angry, will reduce the crime rate? I highly doubt it.

    • But you lost me completely when you extended that sympathy to pedophiles and sex offenders who refuse to acknowledge what they have even done.

      Can’t see Bradbury saying that at all:
      Because sexual offenders often have difficulty admitting their terrible crimes. they refuse to admit their guilt, what this means is that they aren’t eligible for counselling services once inside prison.
      The two paragraphs after that are explaining the consequences of sex offenders not being able to access that help, i.e, they come out of prison far worse than they went in.

      What I get out of that is that Bradbury is implying that such help needs to be available to them from the time that they go into prison. He’s not saying that they should have shorter sentences.

      Again, this is where the Norwegian prison system works better. They have an indefinite sentence that means that they’re going to be in prison for a long time but during that time they get treated well, they have nice places to live in and they get the counseling and rehabilitation that they need. But if they don’t show any improvement then they don’t come out at all.

      Of course, NZ’s far too cheap to even think about doing anything like that. That would require that we put taxes up – especially on the rich.

      • I think David Clendon put it better:

        Restorative Justice has three characteristics:

        The victim is at the centre of the process and the first priority is to heal the harm caused by the crime.
        Community involvement, allowing more appropriate and creative outcomes.
        A focus on getting the offender to take responsibility for what they have done, and take steps to put it right.

        • Actually, I fully support restorative justice. I think most people have more good in them, than bad, and whatever circumstances have led them to break the law, they can still be restored to a place of wholeness (where they will be also law-abiding, productive members of society).

          Furthermore, I strongly believe that forgiveness and reconciliation can be a very healing thing for all parties involved. Not to mention that Christ said we must forgive others, if we wish to be forgiven ourselves.

          In fact I fully supported two people throughout their prison experiences. Neither has returned to jail. Of the two, one had previously spent 7 years incarcerated, for three separate sentences, by the age of 27. Many people would have written him off as a lost cause. I didn’t, and he didn’t let me down: 8 years later, and he still hasn’t been back. But without support, and without encouragement and hope of a better future, and without someone to believe in him, he probably would’ve been lost forever.

          So, yes, I do believe that people can change. And yes, I probably hold that view more strongly than most.

          But. As stated by David Clendon, restorative justice requires that the offender takes resposibility for their actions, and takes steps to put it right. I fail to understand how that can occur in the case of the hypothetical sex offender referred to by Bradbury, who refuses to acknowledge or admit what they have done. Furthermore, in the absence of such an admission, they will never be able to be fully rehabilitated, and will always be a danger to other (weaker) members of society.

          In which case, of course, the Norwegian model is the best scenario: keep them locked up forever if need be, until they no longer pose a threat.

        • “Community involvement, allowing more appropriate and creative outcomes. ”

          I can live with the other two, but this is just PCBS.

          The only appropriate outcome is for people who do bad things to be locked up so they can’t do them again.

    • The aim is surely to reduce the activities of pedophiles and the harm they do. We should be looking at the most effective way to do this. Denying them treatment on the basis that they deny their offending seems more than a little stupid. Sympathy for them has nothing to do with it.

  8. I totally agree with Debbie. the amount of damage and lives they have destroyed forever does not warrant any sympathy, and then theve got no remorse and cant even acknowledge what theve done? Iv seen myself first hand the damage theve done and its destroyed the victim for decades and still destroying them. Then you think we should feel sorry for the purpertrator and set them free to do it again? WOW

  9. Everyone seems to be missing the point. We can implement as many programs as we want in a prison environment and a certain amount of the population will come out the better for it and be productive members of society. At the other end, others, no matter what we do, will never be productive and continually go through the revolving door of NZ prisons.

    Either way, it is yet another example of society being reactive to the problem. When we look at the prison population, step away from the stats that show the increase in the population and start looking at the WHY. How many of those men and women in prison are uneducated and unskilled? Yet we throw them out in the world and say “Be good! Be productive!” There is little to no support for these people. The education system is beyond a joke and there is no incentive for people to stay in school let alone aquire skills or a trade.

    Attack the problem BEFORE it occurs. Look at poverty, education, apprentice programs and ways to help people avoid the endless drudgery that sees undesirables and gangs absorb young people and force them down a life of crime and desolution. Hell, many go back into prison, not because they are addicted to crime or deviancy, but simply because they have a much better, structured life where they don’t have to think too much about how to plan their day. It’s planned for them.

    It’s not so much that the system is broke, but rather that it needs be be reworked from the beginning, anf the begginning is well and truly before their first step inside a cell and even before their first brush with the law.

  10. As well, I think it was mentioned before, but NZ prisons should not be a dumping ground for tthose with mental health issues. 1 in 4 prisoners has a mental health isssue and many are under forensic and mental health care. This may seem like a large percentage but is actually a reflection of society in general.

    Unfortunately, with continual cutbacks for decades in mental health, we’ve relegated not only the poor, but those suffering from mental health to draconian ideas of sticking them in prison. Treat these people properly. Not as criminals, but as people that need help to deal with thier illness.

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