‘Ma¯ ori must lead prison solution’

Davis urges change to help inmates be better, not broken Perverse outcome of Three Strikes

Minister of Corrections Kelvin Davis has issued a heartfelt call to change “a level of imprisonment that is simply devastating our Ma¯ori wha¯nau and communities”.

“The system is broken. It’s not working. And our wha¯ nau are hurting the most,” he told 700 people gathered for the second day of the Government’s criminal justice summit.

“If we genuinely want to see fewer Ma¯ori caught in the system as both perpetrators and victims of crime, then we need to fundamentally change our approach to criminal justice.”

Maori make up more than 50 per cent of about 10,200 people in prison, yet are 15 per cent of the population.

Finding an answer to the high rate One hundred inmates considered by law to be the most dangerous in our society have been released without critical preparation for the outside world because of the Three Strikes law, it has emerged.

Among those is Hayne Neihana Waitoka, sentenced yesterday to serve seven years for stabbing someone in the lower leg, requiring three stitches.

Waitoka had been released from prison as a “Second Strike” offender

of Maori imprisonment will be key to the Government’s pledge to reduce the prison population by 30 per cent in 15 years.

Davis spoke of a former inmate called Sam, who he met at a marae in Whangarei.

He said Sam told him he had “never been hit or abused” until he was taken from his family of 16 children by a government which considered and — like other Second Strike and Third Strike offenders — is legally barred from taking part in reintegration programmes.

Second and Third Strike inmates can access reintegration programmes but are restricted from those requiring temporary release.

Corrections has told the Herald that reintegration programmes are a critical part of reducing the chance inmates will offend again.

It means the law trumpeted as

the burden was too much for his parents to shoulder.

He was placed in a boys’ home where he stayed for four years.

“He had never known abuse or violence in his life until he walked through their doors.”

When he returned to Auckland, he felt alien in the city which had once been home and joined a gang inside a fortnight. improving “public safety” has produced the perverse outcome of increasing the likelihood those with convictions for serious violence will strike again.

The law was passed in 2010. It awards “strikes” to those convicted of particular violent or sexual crimes, with Second Strike prisoners compelled to serve the full length of their sentences without parole and Third Strike offenders the maximum possible penalty without bail.

That bond with the gang lasted for 48 years.

“Sam is now 60 — the gang patches on his face still vivid. His life has been spent in and out of prison.

“Why didn’t we do something? As a government, as Ma¯ori, why didn’t we help?” he said.

“There had to be dozens of points in Sam’s life when someone could have stepped in.”

Davis said the one time the state did step in, it was to take him from his family which “sent him down the path that ultimately turned him into a gang member” along with his whanau.

Davis said there were “5000 Sams” in prison — the number of Ma¯ori currently incarcerated.

“We need to do something together to create a different future for Ma¯ori and for their whanau.

“We need to break the cycle, connect them to their people, help them, and have hope for them.

“And if we accept that there is a need for change then we must all be part of that.”

Davis said the system needed to change but the Government also needed to change its attitude.

“As a government we need to make sure the system helps and does not hurt Ma¯ori further.

“We need to make sure those who have found their way into the system leave as better people — not broken people.”

Davis said the greater proportion of Ma¯ori in the prison system meant it was for Ma¯ori to “lead the solution”.