Crime a symptom of poverty and poor education
In the lead-up to almost every general election for the past 50 years, one or more parties have waved the flag of law and order. With the predictability of spring daffodils and early lambs, but not the welcome, they promise to ‘‘get tough on crime’’.
But the only change we have seen so far is a tragic increase in the number of people we now have in our jails and crime figures are higher than ever.
A number of experts have tried to point out the failings of our criminal justice system, but still our jails bulge at the seams and we have more dangerous and sinister people at large in the community than ever before.
It is an easy but cynical campaign trail vote winner to vow to lock them up and throw away the key.
And too many politicians have used it over the years, most knowing they would never be called on to actually do anything.
There have also been a number of genuine and commendable attempts to lower crime statistics and we have tried almost everything from borstal and military training to home detention and subsidised apprenticeships. None have so far stopped the rot.
The desire by victims of crime for tough retribution is understandable, and that must be part of the solution, but harsh punishment on its own does nothing but give victims some grim revenge.
The latest initiative, launched by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Justice Minister Andrew Little in late August, started with a summit meeting of up to 700 policy and advocacy experts. But before the summit had even met, National Party leader Simon Bridges had called the summit just another talk fest.
So-called justice advocate Roger Brooking waded in with the amazingly stupid comment that the real crisis in the justice system was the rapid rise in the prison population.
He clearly hasn’t been listening, as all parties agree on that obvious point. That is what the summit was set up to address.
If we are ever going to solve this longstanding problem, two things will have to be done from the very start.
The first will require political parties and their supporters to put aside ideological rhetoric and make a coordinated effort, rather than try to score petty points off each other. While they waste time doing that, our frustrated police continue to drag offenders before disappointed judges, who often have no option but to send them to jail, to the distress of their families. Our jails are not equipped or even designed to prevent reoffending and most are still focused more on mindless retribution than anything else.
The second essential task is to accurately define the causes of the problem.
That cause is not simply the number of people breaking the law, getting caught and going to jail.
They are the symptoms of a much more complex social problem, which a number of successive governments have tried, and failed, to solve.
There will be many theories by many people about the real causes of criminal offending, but two common denominators among the majority of inmates stand out from the rest: poverty and associated poor education.
Poverty is much more than hungry children and homeless families. Many of families with two parents in full-time work struggle to make ends meet each week. There is little time or energy to help and encourage kids with schoolwork. In a rapidly evolving world of digital communication and technology, students with poor literacy and numeracy skills will simply be left behind and the highpaying labouring jobs of a previous generation have all but disappeared.
A little more than 50 years ago, it was usual for an employer to share the profits of a successful enterprise 50/50 with employees.
That ratio is now 60/40 and falling for wage workers. That fallout from the failed neoliberal experiment will take many years to correct, even with all parties working together.
Overworked teachers know the frustration of trying to help unmotivated pupils from dysfunctional families where crime and drugs are the norm.
Unless specialist teachers are properly resourced and supported and there is a dramatic change in average incomes, no amount of summit meetings and good intentions will make any difference to prison populations.
There will always be some people who are too dangerous to be loose in the community and they should be locked up for as long as possible.
But they are a minority.
We can reduce prison populations but only if we make a concerted and genuine effort to solve the real underlying problems of poverty and poor education first.