Inmates support longer jail term

Press, 29 June 1981, Page 6

Inmates support longer jail term

PA Auckland Support for a longer minimum prison sentence has come from a surprising source: prisoners themselves. About 12 of 246 submissions received by the Penal Policy Review Committee 'came from prison inmates and a spokesman for the committee, Mr G. W. Adams, said that there was surprising agreement among them that the shortest sentences did not achieve anything. He said, “They thought no sentence should be less than six months because they see so many prisoners on shorter sentences go and come back again.”

. He believed that if a crime was serious enough to warrant a prison sentence at all it should be for at least six months to have a real effect on the prisoner.

The submissions all came from prisoners serving sentences of four years or more and Mr Adams said that the

authors also felt that very long sentences served no useful purpose. “They all felt the first six months were the hardest. After that, prisoners had adjusted to the restrictions and the prison regime and did not find it hard.” Mr Adams said that the prisoners had represented themselves very well. At least one of the submissions had several co-authors and another had been written after discussion with other inmates. The submissions had come from different prisons. Mr Adams said, "These are the consumers of the prison system and I think they have been very honest." The prisoners’ other main concern was that inmates should know their rights to parole and remission of sentence from the day they entered prison and that they should have a clear understanding of how long, they might have to serve.