‘Prisons are moral and f iscal failure’
The Government’s much-vaunted criminal justice summit has been launched but sceptics are doubtful about the outcomes.
‘‘If we want to talk about an effective justice system, we should not start with a discussion about prisons but a discussion about New Zealand,’’ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at a launch event yesterday.
The two-day summit will take place in Porirua and is expected to lay the foundations for an overhaul of the justice system.
A bloated prison population was at the centre of the need for reform and, Ardern said, she did not see the point in laying blame anywhere.
‘‘No-one set out to have a criminal justice system that has us ranking so highly when it comes to incarceration.
‘‘I think we all realise that prisons are a moral and fiscal failure, and that staying on a trajectory
which would see us building a new prison every two to three years is even more so.’’
The summit has been months in the making and is expected to convene about 700 policy experts, academics and advocates and frontline justice workers in a twoday series of workshopping sessions to develop a plan for justice reform.
The summit will ‘‘shine a light’’ on what is happening inside prisons and with arrests, and will feed into the reform work being carried out by a government-appointed justice panel, that has also copped criticism over its representation and a perceived lack of ‘‘frontline’’ workers.
The 10-person advisory group, which is led by former National MP and courts minister Chester Borrows, was announced last month to carry out the coalition Government’s vision of fixing the ‘‘broken’’ criminal justice system.
Justice Minister Andrew Little announced two new members of the group, just ahead of the summit. ‘‘Shila Nair and
Quentin Hix add value by bringing Indian and Maori expertise and experiences as the newest members of Uepu¯ Ha¯ pai i te Ora – The Safe and Effective Justice Advisory Group,’’ he said.
Nair was a counsellor with Auckland based not-for-profit group Shakti, while Hix ran his own private law firm with more than 25 years of experience.
Little said he was looking forward to the summit getting under way.
‘‘New Zealand needs less offending, less re-offending, and a
national conversation about fixing the broken justice system.’’
Last week, justice advocate Roger Brooking had harsh words for the summit, calling it ‘‘wellintentioned’’ but unlikely to achieve lasting reform.
‘‘The real crisis in the justice system is in the rapid rise in the prison population. Mr Little said he wants to reduce the prison population by 30 per cent over the next 15 years. Frankly, that’s a ridiculous aspiration without National Party collaboration,’’ Brooking said.
National Party justice spokesman Mark Mitchell said he was ‘‘extremely doubtful’’ the summit would throw up any good ideas but National would take part.
Official figures showed that as at March this year, the prison population had leapt from 8500 to 10,800 in six years, meaning there were over 2000 more inmates than in 2011.
In recent months, the prison population has been tracking down, and is currently about 1000 prisoners below the 2017 justice sector forecast.