Corrections scrutinises failing drug and alcohol programmes
The latest data shows that the department’s rehabilitation programmes have had very little impact on preventing prisoners from reoffending.
Corrections’ director of mental health and addiction services Emma Gardner told 1News that, while in the past the programmes made a real difference, “the figures are showing that at the moment the programmes aren’t as effective as they used to be”.
Of course they are failing.
They are failing because the percentage of professional criminals and gang members has rapidly increased inside prisons.
The need to admit guilt before you can access these rehabilitation programmes creates a disincentive for prisoners to seek help. This leads to prisoners serving their full lags rather than being bailed early under the previous bail rules. We end up with prisoners who are institutionalised and haven’t seen an hour of counselling while inside prison.
The system is designed to take violent men and release them more damaged than when they went in.
The environments inside the prisons are violent and corrupt, you can’t rehabilitate people in a prison environment where any sign of weakness becomes an invitation to violence.
The thirst for vengeance driven by news crime porn and ‘get-tough-on-crime’ Politicians has generated a prison industry that becomes more counter productive the more draconian it gets.
The chances of a destructive prison riot in NZ before the 2023 election can not be ruled out.
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If you believe the 1ZB crowd no one goes to prison for anything nowadays so this can’t be happening surely? Are there actual stats that show this rise of hardened criminals/gang members in the prison population? There seems to be lots of statements made without the numbers to support them.
California corrections had a voluntary vegan lifestyle program run by Adventist groups that also included some god stuff.
Huge results, as in massive drops in recidivism.
It was canned.
The food or the program?
The food was probably better than the normal prison diet so is unlikely to be canned.
Doesn’t the whole “Corrections” system we rely on as a society scream out for the need of a top down overhaul, jail by jail?
It’s no good Kelvin Davis surrendering to the status quo and thinking the only option being the easiest is to empty them!
National goes on about ‘cracking down’ on gangs, BUT handed over control of our prisons to the gangs to ensure that they standover, rape and shank other prisoners as part of ‘punishment’.
I think if you look at nature of and the way programmes are now delivered compared to when NZ was effective in reducing re-offending you will find some differences that might explain drop in effectiveness.
Look, it’s already been agreed that gang work schemes are SOCIALISM and thus completely unthinkable for the Labour/Nat uniparty, so who cares if they worked great, the party’s over.
NZ is growing poverty and criminal activity.
Time to stop and look at what socially responsible, low crime, low corruption countries do!
We need all the resources on our home grown criminals to rehabilitate, not keep adding in more high needs!
Finland is quicker to deport foreigners who get residence permits on false pretexts, commit crimes or don’t earn enough.
https://yle.fi/news/3-11202911
We are wasting a fortune on prisoners who are not NZ citizens like Tarrant, but do massive harm here on levels we have never seen before. That should be spent on rehabilitating NZ prisoners and keeping NZ citizens and residents safe in preventative terms by removing and deporting harmful people before they establish a base in NZ and actually stop them getting visas in the first place by upgrading the security, fraud, financial and character assessments before they come.
I would suspect any department with Kelvin Davis was the Minister of would be a failure .
So what? The violent prisoners serve their full term. That’s a real benefit to society right there.
Then when they are released and inevitably re-offend (and statistically that will be against someone who knows them, so no real harm) they go back to prison, again refusing to admit guilt and again serving their full term. Sounds ideal to me.
Anyone in prison for a mistake will admit it and get help. Anyone else is in there to make life safer for those outside. That’s how it is supposed to be.
Straight from the horses mouth “That’s because it went from 6 month therapeutic community program to 6 week course of 1 hour a day. They did it to save money. Not comparable to old programs that did work’.
Changes made in the last few years of the Key Govt which no doubt, Davis didnt even look into until it became a national disgrace.
I would like more info on what it means that the programs use to work, but not now.
What’s changed? What are they doing differently?
I heard a long prison sentence reduces recidivism. Will try and find a link.
Te Maori Party wants to abolish prisons.. and I say to them what happens to the Chch terriorist, Jesse Kempson, Clayton weatherston, Malcom Rewa, the south Ak rapist etc, etc etc etc
Do something bold to change the situation. Integrate prisons with military camps having secure surrounds. Make sentence reduction incentives for them that obey the training and grow personal integrity. Make gang leaders into sergeants who’ll be valuable when NZ’s defence is tested by a foreign adversary.
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