Kim Workman Director Rethinking Crime and Punishment

1. Kim Workman Director Rethinking Crime and Punishment Prisons as Fiscal and Moral Failure

2. 2005 General Election

3. 2008 General Election

4. 2011 - Prison as Fiscal and Moral Failure “Prisons are a fiscal and moral failure and building more of them on a large scale is something no New Zealander wants to see” Hon Bill English, Families Commission 50 Critical Thinkers Forum . 10 May 2011

5. Justice sector pipeline Min. Police Min. Justice Min. Courts Min. Corrections Precursors to Offending Police Response Court Processes • Sanctions • collections • Non-custodial • custodial Event Outcome Vote Police $1.5 Billion Vote Courts $600 million Vote Justice $200 million Vote Corrections $1.2 Billion Total crown spend: $3.5 billion annually

6. The sector spends a lot and has increased rapidly Real expenditure, Justice sector Votes Source: Treasury

7. It can’t continue to grow Source: Treasury

8. Asset base has grown very rapidly Real asset values, Justice sector Votes Source: Treasury

9. Police frontline activity has increased * Excluding traffic. Police and Crown Law do about 90% of prosecutions; the remainder is prosecutions by other government agencies. Source: Police Annual Reports

10. Criminal court volumes have grown * Individuals convicted, diverted, discharged or whose case was not proven in the High, District and Youth Courts. Data continuity from 2005. Source: Ministry of Justice

11. The prison population has grown Source: Corrections Annual Reports

12. The Māori and Pasifika share of the prison population has grown... Prison sentenced snapshot by ethnicity Source: Offender Volumes Report 2009, Department of Corrections

13. Sentence lengths have increased... Prison sentenced snapshot by management category Source: Offender Volumes Report 2009, Department of Corrections

14. ...yet short sentences dominate prison throughput Source: Offender Volumes Report 2009, Department of Corrections

15. Community sentences have also grown rapidly... Community sentenced period starts by management group Source: Offender Volumes Report 2009, Department of Corrections

16. ... and the Parole Board has a great deal of influence over sentence length served Prison sentenced snapshot by discretionary release eligibility Source: Offender Volumes Report 2009, Department of Corrections

17. Increasing interventionism coincides with slightly reduced crime in the past decade Source: New Zealand Crime Statistics 2009/10, Police

18. all this activity has not reduced recidivism 2009/10 2004/05 Source: Corrections, Annual Report 2009/10 and 2004/5

19. The outlook: prison population is forecast to continue to rise... Source: Department of Corrections Annual Reports / Ministry of Justice: Justice Sector Forecast 2010 - 2020

20. Rising volumes and a flat fiscal picture are not easy to reconcile • The justice sector costs the Crown a lot of money • NZ has very high incarceration rates • Efficiency gains are necessary but not sufficient • Volumes are amenable to policy changes particularly in the area of short sentences • The justice sector needs to move to a more sustainable path

23. 1933 – An Imprisoning Nation ‘New Zealand has on the whole very little serious crime. Its prisons, nonetheless, are always full to overflowing and there is daily on an average, a prison population more than three times as great, in proportion to the general population, as that of England and Wales.’ Laing, R., de la mare, F. and Baughan, B. (1933), ‘The Penal System of New Zealand’, Howard Journal of Penology and Crime Prevention, 48-54.

24. 1954 - An Imprisoning Nation ‘in relation to population, we have 50% more people in our prisons daily than they have in England and Wales.’ Department of Justice (1954), A Penal Policy for New Zealand. Wellington: Government Printer.

25. Prisons as Moral Failure John Pratt: • 1985 Zealand friendly, egalitarian • Value social cohesion, homogeneity, security and conformity – a paradise • Intolerant toward those who threaten it’s social cohesion • Anti-vagrancy laws 1870’s, • Treatment of conscientious objectors 1916 • Drunks and lunatics 1960’s • Resistance to homosexual reform 1970’s • Gang members as terrorists 2010 • Pratt, John, The Dark Side of Paradise. “ Explaining New Zealand’s history of high imprisonment” The British Journal of Criminology (2006) 46, 541-560

26. Rise of Penal Populism John Pratt: • 1985 - Impact of Market Economy - • A more heterogeneous and pluralistic society. • Competing Values • Individualism vs. collectivism, • meritocracy vs egalitarianism, • choice vs uniformity, • Intolerance toward welfarism and ‘bludgers’ • Increasing gap between rich and poor

27. Rise of Penal Populism • 2000 Referendum • ‘Tough on Crime’ mantra • Media Promotion of Fear of Crime • Demise of Reliance on Expert Advice • Pre-election Bidding Wars • Victims Rights vs Offenders Rights

28. Prisons as Moral Failure 1853 -1919 Bull: • Describes historical Maori over-representation in criminal justice system in the period 1853 – 1919, in terms of: • culture conflict, • literal normlessness, and • pursuit of the illusion of state control. • The British colonial government criminalised Maori whenever they rebelled. • A gross violation of human rights and the criminalisation of Maori independence. Bull, Simone, ‘The Land of Murder, Cannabilism, and all kinds of Atrocious Crimes: Maori and Crime in New Zealand 1853 – 1919’ Brit.J.Criminol. (2004) 44,496-519

29. Prisons as Moral Failure 1950 - 1970 Kim Workman: • Maori as “Inside Outsiders” • The Maori population changed from being 80% rural in 1940, to some 80% urban by 1986. • Maori Youth Offending Rate rose 50% between 1954 and 1958

30. Prisons as Moral Failure 1950 - 1970 Prior to the 1950’s, Maori offending occurred at a similar rate to non-Maori. One of the factors which caused an increase in crime, related not to how Maori behaved in this strange and new urban world – it had as much to do with how they were treated by non-Maori. John Pratt describes a mindset, which if applied to Maori urban migrants, would see them perceived as a threat to uniformity and homogeneity, and treated as a potentially dangerous underclass.” Workman, Kim, “Politics and Punitiveness – Overcoming the Criminal Justice Dilemma” A seminar delivered at The School of Government and the Institute of Policy Studies Election, 20th October 2008

31. Young Maori who entered the youth justice system did so with, on average, less severe offences than non-Maori. Socio-economic factors did not explain the differences in terms of the numbers of Maori young people entering the youth justice system. Those who ‘solely’ identified as Maori experienced greater risks than those who identified as mixed-Maori. Young Maori were more likely to receive outcomes involving orders for supervision either in the community or in a residence, independent of the seriousness of their offences Young Maori were more likely to be dealt with in the Youth Court than were young Pakeha (71% compared with 56%). Achieving Effective Outcomes in Youth Justice: An Overview of Findings; Department of Social Development, Feb 2004. Dept of Social Welfare Report - 2003

34. Ministry of Justice Report 2007 • Mäori are four to five times more likely to be apprehended, prosecuted and convicted than their non-­Mäori counterparts • Mäori are also 7 ½ times more likely to be given a custodial sentence, and • Eleven times more likely to be remanded in custody awaiting trial

35. Ministry of Justice Report 2007 • Mäori aged 10 to 13 six times more likely to be apprehended than their New Zealand European counterparts. • Mäori aged 17 to 20 are three times more likely to be so. • Mäori women are 5 ½ times more likely to be apprehended and ten times more likely to receive a custodial sentence • Mäori men are over four times more likely to be apprehended and seven times more likely to receive a custodial sentence

36. Ministry of Justice Report 2007 • Three times more likely to be apprehended for drug-­related offences • Seven times more likely to be apprehended for offences against justice • Almost six times more likely to be apprehended for violent offences compared to New Zealand Europeans. • More likely to be reconvicted and re-­imprisoned following community-­based sentences and on release from prison in comparison to other groups

37. Ministry of Justice Report 2007Conclusion • Address the direct and underlying causes of ethnic minority and indigenous offending; • Enhance cultural understanding and responsiveness within the justice sector • Develop responses that identify and seek to offset the negative impact of neutral laws, structures, processes and decision making criteria on particular ethnic-­minority groups

38. Maori Over-Representation At present, 40% of all Maori males over the age of 15 years have either been in prison or served a community based sentence. If Maori are being imprisoned at a rate six times that of non-Maori, what is the collective impact on their whanau and communities?

39. The Collateral Cost of Imprisonment “High rates of imprisonment break down the social and family bonds that guide individuals away from crime, remove adults who would otherwise nurture children, deprive communities of income, reduce future income potential, and engender a deep resentment toward the legal system. As a result, as communities become less capable of managing social order through family or social groups, crime rates go up” Stemen D (2007) Reconsidering Incarceration: New Directions for Reducing Crime Vera Institute of Justice New York

40. The Collateral Cost of Imprisonment “Imprisonment becomes part of the socialisation process. Every family, every householder, every individual in these neighbourhoods has direct personal knowledge of the prison –through a spouse, a child, a parent, a neighbor, a friend. Imprisonment ceases to be a fate of a few criminal individuals and becomes a shaping institution for whole sectors of the population.” • Garland D (ed) (2001) Mass Imprisonment: Social Causes and Consequences Sage Publications London

41. A New Direction for Criminal Justice?

42. Short Term Measures • Define ‘public safety’ • Focus on low-level, repeat offending • Strengthen and expand community sentencing options • Implement a comprehensive prisoner reintegration strategy • Address Māori overrepresentation in the criminal justice system • Support the Drivers of Crime strategy • Promote community-based offender transformation • Back whānau, family and community engagement • Establish a community justice strategy • Achieve community justice through justice reinvestment

43. Strategic Policy Direction • Bi-partisan Political Agreement • Criminal Justice Policy as part of broad social policy agenda • Establishment of Independent Criminal Justice Commission • Independent Review of Criminal Justice System and Strategy • Limits on media reporting post - sentence

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45. Kim Workman Director Rethinking Crime and Punishment Prison as Fiscal and Moral Failure