Prison alternatives to come into force

Press, 2 August 1985, Page 23

Prison alternatives to come into force

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

Measures taken to increase the capacity of prisons do not get to the heart of the problem, according to the Secretary for Justice, Mr Jim Callaghan, in his annual report to Parliament. The greatest need was to find acceptable ways of reducing the number of people held in New Zealand prisons. New Zealand’s imprisonment rate exceeded that of many comparable countries, he said. The reason for New Zealand’s high imprisonment rate was the extraordinarily high number of Maori males sent to prison. The non-Maori rate compared reasonably with other Western societies; the Maori rate was of disastrous proportions. The rate of prisoners per 100,000 of population in 1984

was — total, 89.5; nonMaori, 51.1; Maori, 361.0. Mr Callaghan said that while identified members of the Maori race comprised about 12 per cent of the general population, they now made up about half the prison population. In the 1524 years age-group, Maoris were imprisoned at almost 10 times the rate of nonMaoris, and this was disquieting. Analysis showed that if imbalances in the Maori conviction and imprisonment rates had been the same as for non-Maoris, then the total numbers imprisoned would have been reduced 20 per cent. While prison remained a necessary sanction for many of those convicted of offences, he said that there were a substantial number of offenders who were sent to prison because the courts were not given an alterna-

tive that was seen as appropriate. • These alternatives were being made available in the new sentences being provided in the Criminal Justice Bill that was due to come into force in October. “The imprisonment rate for young Maori males and females is no less than a tragedy for New Zealand,” Mr Callaghan said. “While it is in large part a consequence of much higher offending and arrest rates, it is also in part a consequence of the fact that the criminal justice system seems to work to the disadvantage of the Maori people.” That situation would change only if the justice system recognised adequately the need for a special input before sentencing. Progress to that end had started, particularly through the Maatua Whangai programme.