Asia-Pacific News
Crime crackdown lifts New Zealand prisoner count by 40 per cent
Jul 14, 2009, 2:56 GMT
Wellington - A crackdown on crime and public demands for tougher sentences have seen New Zealand's prison population increase by 40 per cent in the last six years, a government minister said on Tuesday.
The prison roll call has risen from under 6,000 in 2003 to just under the nation's record number of 8,457 inmates logged in September 2007, Corrections Minister Judith Collins said.
'Within the next couple of weeks it likely that we will have more people behind bars than at any other time in New Zealand's history,' she said, warning that the prison system could run out of beds by February.
She said the government had ordered prison heads to adopt 'double bunking' - housing two inmates in a cell designed for one person, usually by replacing a single bed with bunk beds - and would buy shipping containers to be converted into cells to meet the accommodation crisis.
The prison population is forecast to rise to about 10,700 by 2016, Collins said.
With about 190 prisoners per 100,000 people, New Zealand's incarceration rate is second only to the United States among developed countries, according to the Howard League for Penal Reform.
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Older Talkback
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Kiwi ChickJul 15th, 2009 - 01:49:27
Social Disaster Catch
Social Disaster Catch Up!
Well when Helen first got in she was promptly handed the results of a referendum that 90+% of voters asked for tougher sentences.
What did the wrecker and hater do....
She almost immediately unilaterally halved all the prison sentences.
What? you say that is impossible.
No! Its the effective truth.
She reduced sentences from 2/3 to 1/3 of the Judged period by halving the time required before you could get parole...and we all know how carefull and wise the parole folk don't we?
They know that parole is a 'right' of prisoners unless they are blatantently still defiant...and even then thanks to Helen they let out Killers that almost immediately do what killers do....They Kill.
Thanks Helen. No you are out Wrecking the World...we should have sacrificially kept you here in NZ.
So now we have to have a catch up mopping up all those prisoners that didn't learn their lesson from the soft touch release and didn't serve their sentence.
No suprise at all....Just another of Frigged up nutta Labour thinking, pushing social destruction into society as a foundation for the future.
No Consequence Philosophy Doesn't work!!
The problem is that Nutta lefties just add more of what caused the problem in the first place to try to solve it...Prison numbers too High????
What would a Stupid lefty do..give out more home detention Build Cushier prisons for them so the reform better...Let them out earlier..legalise more criminal activities of consequence..and reduce sentences!!!
Aren't the academics and experts so wise?
I wonder what the next referendum that the Vast Majority of Kiwis support will yield...More pea brain self proclaimed experts convincing the house of misrepresentatives to sideline democracy again and defy the commonsense that 3.6 million NZers agree on and a hand full of nuttas defy.
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