Guest Post: PULLING CRIME INTO LINE OR BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE

A guest post by Scott Guthrie, CEO, Justice for Kiwis:

As the country transitions into a new government, now is the time to watch in earnest and see what election promises are followed through, which will give us a clear understanding of what Winston has managed to rape on his way through.  

We have all heard National, Act and Winston pledge to make our communities safer, through building new prisons and eradicating gang patches publicly, which all makes spoken common sense, but does it make economic sense.  

We all know gangs are a scourge of society, and all agree the sooner they are eradicated the better, but building new prisons and locking people up forever? Is that the real solution? Isn’t it time that we started looking for a solution that actually works, because clearly our current judicial system is not, and has not been working for decades.  

If we look at Sweden as an example of a like minded and populated country, we see a very successful judicial system where since 2004 prisoner numbers have fallen from 5,722 to 4,500 out of a population of 9.5 million, and they are at a stage of closing prisons not building new ones.  

Sweden’s reoffending used to be similar to that of our own, some 70% of convicted people went on to reoffend, where now it sits at less than 40% and is dropping yearly.  

For me the proof is in the pudding, so lets start the conversation to see if there is actually an appetite to change a system in this country that is aloof, tired and seemingly out of align with likeminded constitutions.