All posts by Allan Tibby

Yoga and meditation teacher, social commentator, philosopher and spiritual seeker

Stephanie Crean – Forgiveness and Peace

As I mentioned in my last post, while doing some research on Brownie, to my great delight I discovered Stephanie Crean @mylifejourneyblog. While I have not yet personally met her, I very much want to do so.

Stephanie Crean

Stephanie was just two years old when Brownie ordered the murder of her dad Chris Crean. When the guys who were sent to kill Chris first came to his house and knocked on the door with weapons in hand, Chris came to the door with two-year-old Stephanie in his arms. The men fled but were ordered back to kill him even if it meant killing the baby in his arms.

Chris Crean

Stephanie has been through much of her life, but her trials have only made her a better person. She is proof of how the grace of God can transform anyone. Her message is a message of hope and of love.  In one of her 1st blogs she wrote: “My Life Journey – Unforgiveness? Love your Enemies?

When asked which emotion contribute most to physical illness, a group of eminent doctors said “Anger and Unforgiveness ” thats because overtime they release deadly toxins into your body. One Doctor said,its not what your eating, but whats eating you that threatens your health .

I have had to forgive many situations and people all my life , forgiveness is a very powerful thing , forgiving people can hurt in the moment , but it can set you free for life . Unforgiveness can rob you from life , I have seen it carry on for years.. and still now. You miss out on life , the beauty and people who care and truly want to get to know you , its sad really .. I missed out getting to knowing someone Im sure alot of people would love to know dearly , I missed out on that all due to unforgiveness and hatred towards other people , someone a young child would hear magical stories from back in there days this is how we ust to wash our clothes none of this fancy stuff we have our days now , i didn’t get to know him and one day he past .”  You can read this blog here – https://www.facebook.com/mylifejourneyblog/posts/1735291833416842:0?__tn__=K-R

On July 23, 2017, she wrote an open letter of forgiveness to the men who killed her father, Chris Crean, and who were prepared to kill her, just a two-year-old baby, if necessary. It is one of the most moving examples of what Lord Jesus Christ are asked those who would follow him to do.  I will include parts of this letter here, but encourage you to read it in full at https://www.facebook.com/mylifejourneyblog/posts/1967749856837704:0?__tn__=K-R

“To all four men and the black power gang that were invovled in the murder of my father Christopher Crean, my name is Stephanie Crean and I forgive you for murdering my father.

For many years I have not spoken to the media about how I feel about this heart breaking tragedy .

I forgive you, not because what you did in murdering my father was right, because that was not right. I forgive you even though there was mention of shooting me only at the age of two.

I forgive you so that you may have peace and I too.  So that our families may have peace, and so that the community may have peace also. So that the nation may have peace, because that is what is right .  I believe that with justice comes peace.

Whether or not you are changed men, I forgive you.

For many years the title above your heads has been of convicted murderers on the tv, in magazines, in newspapers, and even on the internet.  But today I write to you as sons of your fathers and mothers, as brothers to your brothers and sisters,  as uncles to your nieces and nephews, and fathers to your sons and daughters.

My dad was not a perfect man, but he was a good man.  You too are not perfect men, but you can be good men. You may not be able to start a new beginning, but you can start a new ending. A good ending.

I also am not a perfect person and I also have done things in my life I am not proud of.  I also cannot change my beginning, but I can choose to have a better ending. I also, can choose to be a good person. I’m 22 this year, and what life has taught me the most is to love your enemies. I have my own blog that I write stories for people to read and I focus a lot of my stories on forgiveness and love, to love your enemies.

I know this to be true. No one is perfect, but we are all blood and flesh, skin and bones. We are all human.  I also know this, that unforgiveness and hate will not change any circumstance or person. Until people understand that we were put on this earth to love, until then, there will be crime, there will be hurt, there will be war.

I forgive you all because I want you to start forgiving yourselves, and once again I’m not saying this because what you did was right, but because whatever love you have left I hope you use that love to change yourselves. Change the ending to your story and use that to help change others, because if you don’t, who will stand up in your shoes and tell your story? I hope you use it for good and I hope you use that love to give to your families, because I hope that one day we all understand that love is the only thing that will give us all peace. Because forgiveness is the only thing that is going to set us free and change everything about our life journeys’.

However, whether or not you are changed men, I still forgive you. If you do not seek out the hopes I have for you, I still forgive you.

I am proud of my dad for standing up for what was right. One day I hope your families will feel the same way I do when they see you change the ending of your life journey to a ending of men that are not perfect men, but were good men.”

Brownie Mane today.

Stephanie’s message had a profound impact on Brownie Mane, the person who ordered her dad’s murder. He feels unworthy of forgiveness and does not personally seek it, but has now dedicated his life to trying to prevent as many young men as possible from following his path and thereby preventing the suffering to other families that he caused Stephanie and her family.

I have taken the liberty (although I will ask permission from Stephanie) to share this wonderful and touching insight with the inmates who attend our Meditation and Mindfulness program at the Paremoremo Prison.  In sharing this and discussing the critical need to forgive and to be forgiven, everyone attending these programs is deeply touched and forced to reflect very deeply upon their life. Stephanie’s message is a message of great hope and of redemption, not due to our own qualification or worthiness. Rather, in spite of being deeply fallen and most unworthy, we can all be recipients of God’s grace and love.

I hope and pray that Stephanie will continue along this path and continue to inspire others to take shelter in the wonderful transcendental message of Lord Jesus Christ.

Billy Macfarlane & Brownie Mane

Billy Macfarlane

Sorry to those who are following this blog – it has been a while since my last post.  Have been really busy on a number of fronts, including working on the documentary I’m doing with Mike Hinchey on criminal justice reform.  Have had some wonderful meetings with some amazing people whom I am not at liberty to speak about just yet.

In early December I was invited down to Rotorua to cover the graduation of six participants in Billy McFarlane’s Pūwhakamua program – @tikangaaroro  https://www.facebook.com/tikanga.aroro

Billy has been facing huge obstacles in the running of his program. Despite the government’s sweeping justice reform which aims to reduce recidivism rates, and the support of judges who put offenders into Billy’s program as part of their parole conditions, Corrections was acting to block this.  They were prohibiting these parolees from attending the program the judges ordered them to attend. What??????  Billy fought this and  Corrections have been forced to apologise for banning offenders from a course designed to help rehabilitate them.  Totally messed up.

Check it out here on Maori TV https://www.maoritelevision.com/news/politics/corrections-forced-apologise-banning-offenders-course  and https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503438&objectid=12094889&fbclid=IwAR18EsNIGeXrvcaNQ_MsAHXVxfqqxuPHzyzT9JxF1psi4tzQeakJL9lZwFo

I really encourage anyone who is moved by what Billy is doing to please support him in whatever way you can.  He is carrying a huge load, practically alone, with the incredible support of his partner Brownyn.

Brownie with me, my wife and daughter who works on the docu with ume and Mike

Back to the graduation – the guest speaker there was Brownie Mane.  Brownie was the former Black Power Taranaki leader who ordered the gang hit on Chris Crean in New Plymouth 20 years ago.  Chris was a witness to a brutal gang slaying and agreed to testify about it and so he was therefore murdered to prevent him testifying.  Brownie was convicted to life along with three others.  A couple of years ago there was a movie made about this murder called Resolve – https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/94891316/resolve-chris-crean-remembered-as-courageous-in-tvnzs-latest-sunday-theatre   It’s a really good movie and worth the watch.

Brownie under arrest in New Plymouth and 20yrs later

Brownie underwent a huge transformation and was granted parole about 2 years ago, after serving 19yrs.  A big part of his transformation was his reconnecting with his roots through tikanga and te reo programs.  He became an inspirational agent for change and worked with Corrections to give presentations in prisons.  He is an awesome man and has so much to share and give.

Chris Crean

In a post on the Maori Prison Support Services’ Facebook page, Brownie described Crean as an “innocent man” and that his time spent behind bars was “nothing” compared to the pain he put the Crean family through. “There are no amount of apologies I can ever say to compensate this family for what I did,” Mane said. “I can never wipe up all the tears that have fallen by this family for their loved one so I will never be seeking forgiveness for what I’ve done.  “The 19 years I spent in prison may seem like a long time to some. In my view, this 19 years is nothing compared to my victim’s family. Even though it’s nearly been 22 years since this crime happened, I can only imagine that their pain and hurt is still very raw and that it must only feel like yesterday for them that this devastating event took place.”

Brownie’s presentation at the graduation ran for about an hour and was both brutal and riveting. Brownie absolutely shattered any idea of so-called “glory” attached to going to prison or joining a gang. It was one of the most moving presentations I have been privileged to witness. I’ll speak a little bit more about his presentation sometime soon.

As a result of meeting Brownie and developing a friendship with him, we traveled up north to spend some time with him and interview him for out documentary. One of the major “reveals” after our trip to Rotorua and the graduation there, was to learn that Brownie had been a major influence on Billy and was one of his mentors.

Billy’s program – https://www.facebook.com/tikanga.aroro

Before going down to Rotorua, I did a little research on Brownie, knowing that he was going to be there. That is when I stumbled upon the Facebook page of Stephanie Crean. Stephanie was two years old when Brownie ordered the murder of her dad Chris Crean. When the guys who were sent to kill Chris first came to his house and knocked on the door with weapons in hand, Chris came to the door with two-year-old Stephanie in his arms. The men fled but were ordered back to kill him even if it meant killing the baby in his arms.

Stephanie and her mom have undergone amazing personal transformations because of their deeply embracing the teachings of Lord Jesus Christ. This has led to both Stephanie and her mom actually forgiving Brownie and the other killers of Chris. But that is an amazing story. I’ll get to in my next post.

Interview with David Fisher – NZ Herald Senior Writer

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.

David Fisher – NZ Herald senior writer

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.”

Allan, David, and Mike

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

Visiting Black Power Chapter – Whakatane (Day 2)

On our 2nd day in Whakatane (Sat 08 Sept.) we were able to witness the fruit of the vision Paora (Black Power chapter leader) had back in 1992 when he decided that what was missing in the lives of the gang members and what could heal them was their Maori culture. Paora was not able to get the national leaders to buy into his dream at the time and so he took his own path of a very deep emotion into the culture and language he had not known as a child and young man growing up. We got to meet his elder son Raymond and next son Glenn (who has just come back from Australia), and hear from them what they witnessed as they grew up observing their father’s journey. They both spoke with great pride about what their father had given them, and how it had affected their lives. Now Paora and his sons play a unique role in sharing the deep traditions of their culture with their Marae and with the wider public in Whakatane.

Paora and eldest son Raymond

Paora’s son Glen

Saturday morning was a regional junior rugby league tournament and festival. Teams of young players had come from around the region to Whakatane where the championship was held. In a tradition of the elders, the local young players along with Iwi leaders welcomed the different teams in the traditional way of their people.
Paora’s eldest son, Raymond, teachers kapa haka, taiaha, te reo Maori, and deeper culture to schoolchildren in Whakatane. He is incredibly dedicated to revitalizing the traditions and a deeper cultural understanding, especially with the young people, of the entire Maori culture. Today he led the young team members from Whakatane in a traditional welcoming of the other teams who are coming for the competition. They began by practicing at 7 am in order to be ready for the formal start of the program at 9 am.

Early morning Haka practice

While young boys performed a haka, C.K. (one of the BP younger generation we had interviewed yesterday, and who are setting a new course for the gang) performed the traditional challenge to the teams who were being welcomed. CK had learned the taiaha and how to perform the challenge from Raymond. CK concluded his challenge by placing a twig with leaves on the ground. Paora guided a young representative from the visitors to come forward and pick up the twig with leaves to show they had come in good faith. All the while, Raymond was leading the young boys from Whakatane in a challenging haka. One by one the visiting teams came forward and responded with their own haka. The Iwi elders then sang a welcoming waiata and Paora spoke in Te Reo Maori to welcome everyone. And an elder representative from the visitors responded and the games were declared open.

C.K. issuing challenge with Taiaha

Raymond leading boys in welcome Haka

Visitors respond

Welcoming waiata

Home team welcoming guests with Haka

VIDEOS OF EVENT ON MY FB HERE –  https://www.facebook.com/Allan.Tibby.page/videos/2232918863606674/

It was very moving to see how a young man who was steeped in violent gang culture (Paora) who had this vision, and then dedicated himself over decades to not just familiarize himself, but to become deeply enriched with the intricacies of his lost culture, has gone on to make such a profound change in the lives of so many people. It is both truly inspiring and, if I were in government, I would really get behind and support as it clearly shows what can be done through vision and leadership.

Before leaving Whakatane, we went down to the beach at Ohope, and saw these amazing huge logs on the beach, which were carved with Maori design. Apparently, some local guy comes down to the beach and carves on logs that are washed ashore, and then when there are large tides and storms, they are picked up and washed to other parts of the coast. It was supercool to see.

Visiting Black Power Chapter – Whakatane (Day 1)

Talking with Black Power members

BLACK POWER – Whakatane. In a post I made back on 27th Aug from Wellington about Eugene Ryder, I mentioned about some people from Whakatane Eugene introduced us to. Well, they invited us to Whakatane and we visited them today. We met up with Paora (an inspirational BP leader), his wife and a number of others.

Paora and his wife Tui

They are a really amazing group. Back in 1992 Paora recognized the critical need for Māori to reconnect with their culture and that this would be both healing and give new purpose to the members of Black Power. Most of the leadership of other BP chapters didn’t buy into this and so Paora set about transforming himself through a cultural immersion and teaching the younger members in his chapter. It has been utterly transformative and the younger generation (many now in their 30’s) are actively pursuing higher education, cultural immersion and community support programs with the wider community in Whakatane. It was really cool speaking to these young guys.

Cain with Mike and I.

Interviewing Cain – this guys just wants to give back and help the wider community.

Some of the young members we talked to have attained degrees, sworn off “P” and alcohol and are actively engaged in giving back to the wider community by organizing and supporting community events.  They talk about the “high” of being able to serve the wider community.  It was very inspiring to meet and talk with them.

Two amazing young guys, C.K. and Quintin.

Bongee, one of the OGs (original gangstas)

This Black Power chapter provides cultural leadership to kapa haka groups and taiaha warriors at major civic functions. We will be shooting some of them tomorrow.

One of the extremely sad things to hear was the common thread which we have heard in other parts of the country, where, as young boys, many of the early membership in the gangs were put into state care where they experienced quite extreme physical and sexual abuse. This created so much alienation, distrust of authority and anger.  I heard of one young boy, who at the age of 14yrs, committed suicide by dousing himself with petrol and setting himself on fire in front of his “care-givers”.  This devastated the younger cousin of the boy who witnessed the event and suffered the same abuse. He went on to become one of the original Black Power Gang members.

Interview with Kingi Snelgar

Kingi is a criminal defence lawyer and youth advocate. Prior to starting as barrister, he worked for four years at the office of the Crown Solicitor for Auckland, Meredith Connell,  specialising in the prosecution of serious crime.  Kingi did a master’s degree at Harvard law school.

Super nice guy and very passionate about criminal justice reform with an emphasis on youth and preventing young Maori and Islanders from entering the “pipeline” which leads to a lifetime of offending and being locked up in our prisons.  Cool video of him here doing a TED Talk – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A9ABdpibBw

Interviews with Nayda Te Rangi and Jane Stevens

We went to Hamilton to interview two incredible ladies, Nayda Te Rangi and Jane Stevens, who had formerly been connected with the Black Power and Mongrel Mob from a really early age.  They were also both involved in the Aroha Trust in Wellington in the 70’s, and their stories were included in an acclaimed book by Pip Desmond titled TRUST – A True Story of Women and Gangs.

Nayda’s partner was a Chapter President of the Mongrel Mob, but she eventually separated from him with her children to escape gang life and the cycle of Methamphetamine use of her partner and all the baggage that brought with it. She went on to put her children through school and returned to school herself. She graduated on the same day with one of her children.  She has written a paper for her masters titled “The Liberated Voice of Wāhine within a Gang Collective” and I would encourage you to read it online here – https://www.teipuwhakahauaa.co.nz/uploads/terangi/2016/1147_TeRangi2016.pdf  We interviewed her at the Waikato University where she is completing a degree and then went out to Ngaruawahia to interview Jane.

Jane and Nayda both share a history of experiencing institutional racism from a young age which is incredibly painful for young people. After enduring, then escaping, a childhood scarred with abuse, Jane found safety and security with the Aroha Trust, a work co-op set up by a group of women enmeshed in the gang scene. Wellington journalist Pip Desmond, herself a founding member of Aroha Trust, spent 11 years collecting the stories of the women involved and convincing them they needed to be told.

Jane told us a story she has shared with others before and which needs to be heard as it is a very common narrative amongst many people, both men and women, connected with gangs.

At 11 she was sexually abused by an art teacher. Two years later she was raped by a man in his mid-20s from a V8 gang. She was raped many times over the next decade – once by a gang associate but mostly by “respectable” men: a church worker, a St John Ambulance man who took her home from Girl Guides and a family acquaintance, among others. As a result, Jane went seriously off the rails, stealing, drinking, taking drugs, becoming violent. She was expelled from one high school for stabbing a classmate, then asked to leave the next after hitting a classmate.

“I was self-destructive, angry, I was just lashing out at the world, blaming myself for what had happened,” she says. “But at the time, and to this day, people never picked up on that, never looked at the reasons why I was acting that way.”

At 15, Jane began living at a halfway house run by youth worker Pip Desmond, who was little more than a teenager herself. When that didn’t work out and a brief time flatting was just as unsuccessful, 16-year-old Jane ran away to Wellington with a friend. There, her newfound freedom ended almost immediately when she was kidnapped by an older man she met at a pub. Jane was kept prisoner in his house for several weeks, during which time she desperately tried to get hold of Desmond, who had by then returned to Wellington and set up Aroha Trust.

Desmond finally made contact and, with the help of some of her Black Power connections, got Jane out. “Some of the boys came out and made the guy hand over my suitcases,” Jane recalls in Trust. “They did a big heavy on him. I remember thinking: wow, this is so cool having someone to stick up for me.”

It’s hard to understand how close contact with a group of widely feared and routinely violent men could be a good thing for such a vulnerable young woman, but Jane says it offered a measure of security. “For me, what was incredibly unsafe was mainstream society,” she says quietly. “Abuse came from people in positions of power, people who were supposed to be keeping me safe. Think about trying to report abuse of a parent or schoolteacher back then, or even now. You learn very quickly that you can’t tell anyone. Where do you go when the world that’s supposed to be safe for you is a place of danger?”

By comparison, living and working with the women of Aroha Trust – themselves all battle-scarred by tough upbringings, violence and cultural alienation – was “amazing”.

Interview with Billy Macfarlane

Billy Macfarlane – Former Drug Lord Turned Social Activist.

We went to Rotorua to meet with Billy Macfarlane, a former drug lord who had received a 14 year sentence but was paroled after serving 5 years. Billy turned his life around after learning Te Reo Maori behind bars and began teaching in the maximum-security prison at Paremoremo. He was later transferred up North and was eventually asked by the management of the prison there to become a teacher and mentor for young men who were locked up.

We were invited onto the Marae and were able to interview Billy and some of the people he works with. There was a traditional welcome and one of the local elders spoke for us. Billy and his people sang a waiata and my daughter and I responded with a waiata from our spiritual tradition invoking blessings and love upon us all.

https://youtu.be/rrEDUmKou_Q

After his release, Billy designed and has been running a course he calls Pūwhakamua, and is affiliated with the Apūmoana Marae. It is designed to be an intense six-month programme that will wrap Māori protocol around men who have led a life of crime in the hope they will turn their lives around. The course is followed up with a further six months of checks to ensure the participants are staying crime-free.  However there are also many non-criminals who are taking the course to reconnect with Maori culture.

Billy says “Our tikanga has the power to change young Maori men’s lives and I say ‘watch this space’ because change is coming for these young fellas.”

Here is a link to a piece Maori Television did on Billy – https://www.facebook.com/maraetv/videos/1673383459406769/

It was a real honour to meet Billy and we will continue to stay in touch with him.

 

Interviews with Dr. Kim Workman & Hon. Chester Burrows

On Thursday the 30th Aug morning we spent time with Dr. Kim Workman, the “godfather” of criminal justice reform in NZ. He is a really amazing man. Some points from his interview:
In a typical law and order debate, political parties increasingly promote policies which appeal to our ‘gut instincts’ i.e. they feel and sound right, but may not be supported by evidence. Since 1987 New Zealand general elections have relied increasingly on law and order policies which attract that kind of reasoning. One has to ask whether those political messages are evidence-based, and whether they will reduce crime.
A “tough on crime’ war developed, with the two main political parties outbidding one another in a public muscle-flexing exercise, aimed at attracting the support of the general public.
The pressure on the judiciary continued after the introduction of the Sentencing Act 2002. Dr Don Brash promised even more when launching National’s law and order policies in 2004:
“I don’t intend to recite a lot of statistics to make my case. We all know that New Zealand has a terrible record. It is in front of us each day . . . Every day the media carry stories of horrendous crimes”.

Interviewing Kim Workman at the Just Speak office.
In this instance, penal policy was announced without any reference to fundamental statistical data; including a proposal to abolish parole; a proposal that was estimated to increase the prison population by about 50 per cent.
What was public opinion at the time? After Dr Brash’s law and order speech, delivered at a Sensible Sentencing Trust conference, a TV1 opinion poll showed that respondents favoured parole with safe guards, rather than the abolition of parole. In an opinion poll conducted for TV3’s Campbell Live, 56 per cent favoured community punishments rather than spending more money on prisons.
Research at that time consistently showed that the general public overestimated their own risk from crime; overestimated the proportion of crime involving violence; overestimated the risk of reoffending; and underestimated the severity of sentences. On the other hand, they did not think sentences were too lenient once acquainted with the facts. Media coverage did nothing to address this. Indeed, the media was a primary source of public misinformation.
The ACT party recommended that New Zealand follow the policy examples of the United States; where imprisonment rates increased 700 per cent from 110 per 100,000 of population in 1975 to 764 in 2011. That view subsequently found its expression in the promotion by ACT of New Zealand’s own “three strikes” legislation; the Sentencing and Parole Reform Act 2010. All this attention to ‘tough on crime’ legislation, and the Bail Amendment Act 2013, has driven the prison rate up, in the face of declining crime rate.
He also spoke about the disproportionate representation of Maori in prisons

Hon. Chester Burrows at the Ministry of Justice
On Thursday afternoon we interviewed the Hon.Chester Burrows – the newly appointed Chair for the advisory committee on criminal justice reform. He is a former police officer, lawyer and as a National Party MP, held portfolios as the Minister for Courts, Associate Minister of Justice and Associate Minister of Social Development which he said were all issues he “believed in”.
He said the country needed to be smart, not tough on crime but for that to happen the politics needed to be taken out of the debate.
  • “I think a big chunk of the public would consider themselves to be tough on crime and the big challenge is to put some information in front of them and get them to think about the issues,” he said.
  • “What we’ve had in the past is we’ve had evidence based suggestions and they’ve run up against emotive responses and it’s very difficult to have a conversation like that.”
He said a lot was working well in justice but a lot of it was “inefficient and not particularly safe”, and that “Not many people in the New Zealand public actually have confidence that the justice system is working.”
“The political challenge is to confront the crude rhetoric of tough-on-crime/soft-on-crime and say, ‘Ah-ah, I ain’t buying into that, I’m about what’s effective.’ Because what’s effective keeps people safe.”
He has blamed political parties’ self-interest in staying in power for the lack of progress in law and order reform. As examples you have stated:
An example was the three strikes law introduced by National and ACT under the previous government, which you said National never supported but was introduced to appease their confidence and supply partner.
  • “Three strikes was never part of National’s plan, it came up as a political move because they needed a confidence and supply partner and that was it. I never liked it, I sent that back.
  • “Unfortunately it was a party vote and you fall under the whip on those occasions and that’s what happened.”
“Most politicians know that restorative justice is the key to reducing crime, but are happy to talk tough on sentencing because it gets them votes.
  • “The fact is law and order is one of the big four people vote on alongside health, education and the economy. So what you find is someone who wants to stay in power or someone who wants to get into power… will run over and push that button.”
  • And it’s politics he fears will get in the way of real reform.
Speaking to the new advisory group – “The thing that could kill it is the politics around it. It is thankfully about putting up evidence-based solutions. Now if the politicians want to kill it with rhetoric, over to them. But let’s shift the blame to them.”
Many of those are young people who have their lives ahead of them, but the system is letting them down. He expressed the view that many young people who fall into a life of crime are just as much victims as those they offend against.
  • “You send them to a criminal university and give them a gang affiliation,” he says, adding that it’s even worse for those who are remanded in custody before they get to face a judge.
  • “When they finally get to court they are then released on time served, so they go out with no rehabilitation, no therapy, no one watching them, not on parole – just pissed off and poor, and they’re going to commit more crime.”
“If you get to know these people, they’ve all been offended against. Why the hell do you think people offend in this abhorrent way? Because it’s a learned behaviour.”
  • He got into trouble for saying a lot of the victims in the center of the criminal justice system are standing in the dock
  • He acknowledges it’s an unexpected view to have as a former National Party MP. He says even as a cop, his views sometimes clashed with those of his peers.
  • “They thought I was a bit of an oddball.” But the evidence doesn’t lie.
“Restorative justice works better than anything else, and yet if you promote it, you’re seen as being soft on crime.”
Prisons should be safe and effective; just like the rest of the justice system.
  • There is little point in sending somebody to jail in desperate need of reform, rehabilitation, therapy and assistance, only to release them back on to the street with none of those interventions taking place.
  • To phrase it another way, people must come out of prison in better shape than when they went in. If we have a prison population with high ratios of mental health diagnosis, illiteracy, substance dependence, and brain injury, and we hold them for a year or so and then release them with no intervention, that is not safe. Not safe for the offender, their victims or the public in which they live. If recidivism runs at about 60 per cent, that is not effective.
The ignorant like to describe prisons as holiday camps. Being locked up in a cell, probably with somebody to you don’t know, or hate, or are desperately afraid or of at least have zero feeling for, in a small space no bigger than most domestic bathrooms, is no holiday. The table you eat at or write at folds down over an open toilet where you cellmate had a crap 10 minutes ago. The hours spent in this cell may range from ten to twenty-three hours per day. Movement is severely limited as is the use of communications and reading and writing materials. Therapy and treatment are sporadic, and leisure-time is virtually nil. These critics must have some interesting holiday experiences.
Future prison populations will be radically reduced from where they are today, because social policy will deal with the obvious health, education, work and welfare disparities which are indicative if not determinative of future offending and incarceration. Sentences will probably be shorter because they will be resourced well enough to provide effective interventions that will dissuade and rehabilitate offenders sufficiently to live crime free post-release. Many sentences will be completed outside of prison in communities. Prisons will be much smaller and involve the public much more than presently, who will take some responsibility for effective reintegration on release. Prisoners will from custody to freedom by staged transitional accommodation, employment, supervision and mentoring.

 

Interviews with Prof. John Pratt & Judge Becroft

Wednesday morning 29th Aug we interviewed Prof. John Pratt – probably NZ’s leading criminologist. He spoke about some very interesting realities concerning NZ’s criminal justice system which I am bullet-pointing here.
  • The UK, Australia and NZ have a far more punitive approach to criminal justice when compared with the Nordic restorative approach.
  • NZ is even more punitive than Australia or the UK when comparing the very similar rates of crime and with the length of prison sentences.
  • Harsher sentencing and tough bail and remand laws have not reduced recidivism – this is proof that the punitive approach is not working?
  • He spoke about the rise of “Penal Populism”. The crime rate has been falling for years and yet the prison population and corrections spending has ballooned. Since crime rates are falling, logically, there should be less public fear of crime, less political preoccupation with crime and fewer concerns about prison measures being too lenient, but this is not the case. A significant contributor to this situation is the media which has little interest in balanced reporting of crime and punishment. When they sensationalise crimes it has an effect of creating a climate of fear and anger, which is capitalized on by politicians who want to out-bid each other to be “Tough on Crime” to get elected.

Prof. John Pratt at home.
He mentioned that the media can have the effect of both shaping, solidifying and directing public sentiment and opinion on crime and punishment, while simultaneously reflecting it back as the authentic voice(s) of ordinary people. Could you give some examples of how this has occurred?
  • He recounted that when he informed a Nordic prison official, that almost 60% of inmates in NZ prisons had literacy issues, the official asked “how can you have a modern society with such high functional illiteracy?”
  • He also spoke in a very compelling way about the effect colonization and systemic bias has had on Maori and is the major underlying cause of why only 15% of the NZ population is Maori, but they represent slightly over 50% of the prison population and the figure is even higher for women.

Judge Andrew Becroft at the Children’s Commission office
On Wednesday afternoon we interviewed Judge Andrew Becroft, NZ’s Commissioner for Children and formerly the head of the Youth Court. Some of the issues he spoke about are below:
NZ youth justice system is hailed as world-leading with emphasis on change, rehabilitation, community involvement and positivity and yet it’s as if at age 18 it all changes and we turn into one of the most punitive, and punishment based judgmental systems in the world. He questions how two such systems can exist in the one land?
He spoke of areas that should be of principle concern to not create a pipeline from childhood to an adult offender.
  • Criminal justice starts before birth, in NZ there are up to 3,000 Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) births per year. How many children and adults have we imprisoned that have significant brain impairment? The Ministry of Health has been inactive for too long on this issue. Need health warnings on alcohol packaging. TV campaign warning on alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
  • First 1,000 days of child’s life – the battle to keep them out of jail will be won or lost. They may suffer from trauma and neglect, especially children of prisoners.
  • We have been called the most un-fathered generation in the history of the world. Impulse control at age 3 or 4 is single most important factor and can be taught.
Twin pillars – alcohol/drugs and family violence. If we took alcohol out of youth and adult courts, maybe 70% of the charges would disappear. We wimped out, as a country, of the law commission recommendations to reduce alcohol availability to young people. Alcohol is sometimes cheaper than water. Warriors with Woodstock alcohol label on their sleeves. The very product that is associated with criminal offending.
We have to address the shame of enduring overrepresentation of indigenous people in justice system. Three areas of focus need to be:
  • Child poverty material disadvantage. High risk for poor life outcomes including offending. Most serious offending comes from a background of material poverty and profound disadvantage.
  • Earlier intervention would be profoundly effective.
  • The enduring colonization and modern-day systemic bias and most of us are part of a system even if we know it or not, that demonstrates systemic bias.
The role of education on crime. “Better health, better attendance at school, better performance at school, less involvement with the criminal justice system. The downstream effects ought to be enormous.”
Youth court stats show us that appearances have dropped about 12% for the general population, but Maori youth appearances are up 23%. We know there is a problem with disparity, so why does the gap persist?
  • Numbers are coming down for Maori, but not as quickly as for Europeans, so the over-representation continues.
  • Secondly, it’s quite a small group numerically.
  • It’s troubling if we label all Maori being a Maori problem. Most Maori children thrive and do well. It’s not a youth-justice issue; it’s an issue in every system of government, health or education. We see that over-representation, and we have to own this. Is there any country in the world where the colonisation process has been other than bad for children? That’s the reality. It’s been bad for indigenous children. There’s a combination of systemic discrimination, unconscious bias. They are the big issues, and the stats are replicated in all other areas. The challenge for our country is to look at it system wide. How can we do better for our indigenous children?
“I think we will have a revolution of our understanding of our young people in the next 20 to 30 years, especially from the criminal justice point of view. I suspect history might judge us quite harshly. We judge those in the Victorian era of having a very crude approach to child welfare … well I think a lot of what we’re doing right now might be judged as almost, putting it crudely, sending a blind person to prison because they can’t see.”
You have expressed concern at the growing inequality in New Zealand. The 1960s and 70s in the New Zealand had an enormous middle class, and we weren’t too conscious of extremes of wealth. It’s a different New Zealand now. We know that inequality is growing. And I think that’s an issue that we must face as a country.” Please speak to this point and specifically to:
  • Poverty as a high risk factor for offending.
  • The relative poverty in New Zealand is pretty profound where we have pockets of a third generation permanent underclass.