Cost of prison system

Press, 8 September 1976, Page 20

Cost of prison system

Sir,—The so-called silent majority couldn’t care less, unless, of course, it happened to them. The New Zealand penal service is of less interest than solo mothers. It is quite immaterial that it probably costs as much if not more. Like Shylock we all want our pound of flesh, and a minority of 3000 misfits with no rights seems to be a good whipping post for our vindictive nature. What a pity we have to pay for it through public apathy. Our society is sick, maybe it’s New Zealand, the way you, the average bloke in the street, want it, or maybe you just don’t want to know. —Yours, etc., B. THOMPSON. September 5, 1976. Sir, —Will somebody explain what is going on? Why are we building, or have built new prisons at Paremoremo, Wanganui, Linton, and Otatara? Haven’t the old ones worked? In private enterprise, which we were told this Government stood for, they don’t keep flogging a dead horse. It would appear to me that prison reform is well overdue. Maybe it is not a vote-catcher, but isn’t it time our politicians did something constructive, instead of wasting our money in this manner?—Yours, etc., BARBARA HEWITT. September 6, 1976. Sir, — Regarding the cost of our prison system, undoubtedly the time is ripe for a new and extended form of parole. I consider the true and most damaging cost is to the lives of the prisoner and his family. It is reported in your paper that lengthy sentences are no deterrent so why do we continue to inject vast quantities of badly needed finance into a futile system that causes so much hardship and in many cases achieves nothing? Can we not use the prisons more as classification centres where the real repetitive criminal serves his sentence, and those that could respond to another chance are given it. — Yours, etc., G. FREEMAN. September 6, 1976. Sir, — The majority of the points put forward contain a good deal of merit, especially when considered by a Government wishing to reduce expenditure. There appear to be two systems of short-term parole, one being a release to work and the

other a parole for home leave. Both are available to prisoners of low-security risk. Apart from these there appears to be another system for long-term prisoners which is operated by the Prisons Parole Board. My point is that if a prisoner s parolable at all he or she is parolable permanently, and I cannot understand why the Parole Board is not instructed to proceed accordingly. — Yours, etc., A. T. BOYD. September 6, 1976.