Major parties keen on Act’s jail policy

Both National and Labour say a policy to reduce jail time if prisoners complete literacy, numeracy and driver licensing courses is worth considering.

Act Party leader David Seymour announced the policy at his party’s annual conference on the weekend.

Eligible inmates would earn up to six weeks for every year of their term, depending on the types of courses completed. For example, a person sentenced to three years in prison could get up to 18 weeks deducted from their time in jail.

The policy would not apply to the worst violent or sexual offenders.

If we had come out and said that . . . we would have been mocked and ridiculed for this ‘socialist soft on crime’ thing. Kelvin Davis, Labour

Prisoners with higher levels of educational attainment could earn similar reductions if they acted as mentors to help other prisoners learn.

Prime Minister Bill English said the policy “is something we can look at”.

“The New Zealand public has a pretty [fixed] view that criminals should be locked up for as long as possible. You would need . . . broad consensus that it was a good thing.”

That could be possible — Labour’s Corrections spokesman Kelvin Davis said, at first look, he liked the Act policy.

“If we had come out and said that . . . we would have been mocked and ridiculed for this ‘ socialist soft on crime’ thing.

“Without seeing any detail, there is merit in that [the policy]. But the rehabilitative programmes have got to improve before it happens.”

In October, the Government announced plans to cope with a booming prisoner population including a 1500-bed prison on the current Waikeria Prison site in Waikato.