Human Rights and Prisons - Rethinking Crime and Punishment

Moreover, New Zealand‟s use of prison is costly – the 2010/11 Corrections
estimated spending includes $767.283mn on custodial services for sentenced
and remand prisoners, as well as private prison contract management (The
Treasury, 2010). This sum, that excludes spending on programmes,
education, and the like, is significant. While the most serious offenders will
continue to need to be securely detained, many offenders would be better
served within community environments in which spending is directed to local
social services.
These perspectives have gained traction elsewhere. For instance, the House
of Commons Justice Committee (2010) has recently called for reform in the
way in which imprisonment is undertaken in Britain. Among other things, the
Committee concluded that:
Prisons are economically unsustainable;
Prisons are generally ineffective in reducing crime or reforming
offenders – this is especially the case during periods of overcrowding;
Prisons should be reserved for the most serious criminals;
Most offenders can be managed more coherently in the community.
The Committee questioned the whole nature of punishment practices.
Instead, they noted that „if other purposes, including reform and rehabilitation
and reparation to victims, were given higher priority, then we believe
sentencing could make a much more significant contribution to reducing reoffending
and to improving the safety of communities‟ (ibid:11).
With this in mind, the Committee called for the introduction of a „justice
reinvestment‟ model (cf Tucker and Cadora, 2003) in which government funds
are directed in a more substantive way to community provisions. Arguing that
prison populations could be safely cut to two-thirds of the current level, the
Committee recommended that correctional savings should be redirected to
probation and crime reduction programmes in the community; this will include
health, education, social welfare and criminal justice initiatives for established
and „at risk‟ offenders. Particular focus should be given to preventative
services that work with former offenders, those with drug and alcohol
problems; those with mental health problems; and young people who have
come into contact with criminal justice agencies. The Committee report, the
result of sustained work by 14 cross-party MPs (and a whole host of
practitioner and academic contributors), calls for a crucial shift in thinking
about punishment practices, specifically to reduce the use of custody as a
sanction.
These issues are certainly worthy of further action in a local context, so that
we might begin to substantively address the questions: „What should we
expect of our prisons?‟ and „What do we actually want to achieve in our
responses to offenders?‟. After all, a country‟s use and means of
imprisonment is a matter of choice and, consequently, these features of New
Zealand society can be changed.
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