Thur 13 September 2018
Today we went up to Whangarei to meet and interview David Fisher, a senior writer for the NZ Herald. David has been closely following the Criminal Justice Reform debate for some time and reporting on it in the Herald.
We meet at the Piggery 2nd Hand Book Store (@piggerybooks) which was a really cool place run by his friend Chloe , a lovely lady who allowed us to shoot in her shop.
David is very well informed and you can read things he has written here – https://www.nzherald.co.nz/author/david-fisher/
Most of the people we have spoken with, including legal experts, academics, and people working on the ground, all speak of the crazy “race to the bottom” which political parties have engaged in over the past 15 years, trying to outbid each other for votes by promoting their “tough on crime” platforms. This has led to an extremely undesirable situation when New Zealand’s crime rate has been significantly declining, and yet the jails have been filling up at a faster rate and sentences have become much longer and more punitive. Many people who are interviewed feel less safe than they did 25 years ago and yet the murder rate has almost half over that period. This is largely being due to politicians and media sensationalizing crimes, particularly sentinel events, for the sake of votes or to increase their audience size.
The politicization of criminal justice is a very unintelligent way to deal with such a serious issue. We see that when the current government wants to try and seriously address the issue in order to make society safer, they are immediately attacked by the opposition and charged as being “soft on crime” which is a gross misrepresentation of the issue. David recently challenged the leader of the opposition, to prove his statement that longer and more punitive sentences reduce crime. Simon Bridges (the leader of the opposition) quoted a study that was done in Italy which turned out to disprove this reality, especially in the New Zealand environment. David wrote about this in an article titled – Simon Bridges’ ‘tough on crime proof’ — unpublished, not reviewed and doesn’t really back him up. I suggest you read it here – https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12116541
An extremely sensitive part of the conversation surrounding criminal justice reform is the huge overrepresentation of Maori in the system. While making up only 15% of the country’s population, they represent over 50% of the prison inmates. Of course, the very big and sensitive question is why? When you look at all the social indicators, Maori fall at the bottom of key statistics such as education, social support, health and employment. That alone should be very troubling for all NZ’s and we should be asking why this is and whether we as a society have any responsibility here.
When I asked David about this issue and about the systemic social bias, which began with colonization and continues up to today he responded with something which was deeply concerning. He stated that; “In the part of New Zealand where I live, it’s a community that’s predominantly pakeha, I think maybe 70 to 80% pakeha and 20 to 30% Maori, which is a higher percentage of Maori than many other parts of New Zealand. But there’s a town that’s 20 minutes drive away, where it’s reverse. If I were to sit down an 11-year-old boy from the other town next to my boy who’s 11, it would break my heart to say to that other boy, I’m really sorry, the chances that you’re going to finish school are so much lower than my son’s, it’s probably not going to happen. The chance of you going to prison is much higher. You’re going to die much younger. The opportunities that your children will have in life are going to be much, much less. Your chance of getting a job is lower, your chance of being unemployed is obviously much higher. The wage that you do earn, if you get a job, is going to be lower and your chance of owning a house, buying a house, it’s not very good, sorry. They only live 20 minutes apart, these kids. That’s obscene.”
I find that many of us can become too complacent, thinking that other people’s problems are theirs or the government’s to solve, and wanting to wash our hands of any direct or indirect responsibility for creating the society we live in, with its inequalities and imbalances. Definitely some serious food for thought.
This is also a really informative read – “Judge: Make New Zealand safer with shorter prison sentences, humane jails and less use of prisons.” https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12114971