What does the bill do?
Limits sentence reductions;
Targets young people with harsher sentencing;
Restricts courts’ ability to consider mitigating factors in offending;
Restricts courts’ ability to consider the circumstances of the defendant in cases of recidivism;
Encourages cumulative sentencing;
Encourages guilty pleas;
…and more.
What Impact will the Bill have?
This Bill will drive further mass incarceration in Aotearoa. More and longer prison sentences will be handed out, and fewer community sentencing options will be available.
For many people, the limits on sentence reductions in this Bill will close the door on more effective alternatives, like kaupapa Māori approaches or restorative justice processes.
Young people will be particularly harmed, as longer sentences will disrupt crucial developmental years and leave them much worse off than their peers. Life will be much harder for them after leaving prison.
Because Māori are already over-criminalised, anything that increases the harm of coming into contact with the justice system will have a racist impact on Māori.
The injustice of our justice system
Our justice system is already stacked against Māori. At every step of the justice process, from first contact with police through to sentencing, Māori are treated more harshly than Pākehā for the same offending.
Economic and structural oppression and a long history of colonialism have produced conditions that create desperation and ill-health. We know that the vast majority of people incarcerated are disadvantaged and have untreated health issues.
Prisons hurt people and communities.
Institutionalisation reduces peoples’ ability to function outside of prison. People in prison suffer abuse and violence, both from Corrections staff and other incarcerated people. The frequent use of pepper spray and solitary confinement are forms of torture. The isolation of prison harms peoples’ mental health.
On release, many people struggle to find accommodation and employment, among other barriers to reintegration.
The families and whānau of incarcerated people are often left with a heavy emotional, social and economic burden.
Children with a parent in prison are disadvantaged, and have worse health and educational outcomes than other kids. In Aotearoa there are already as many as 20,000 children with a parent currently in prison.
Meanwhile the violence and harm of prison flows back into communities when people are released.
If the government upheld its obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi, we could end the disproportionate incarceration of Māori.
If the government committed to eliminating poverty, housing insecurity, and barriers to healthcare and workforce participation, many of the issues that drive offending would disappear and far fewer people would be harmed.
Instead, prisons simply perpetuate cycles of harm and trauma.
What can you do about this bill?
Make a submission to the select committee. In your submission, consider the disproportionate impact on Māori and young people; the inconsistency with Te Tiriti o Waitangi; the lack of evidence that incarceration works; the way this Bill fails to address the drivers of crime; the harms of being in prison; and what you think would be a better approach.
Check our blog for an early draft of our submission on this Bill. We also have a guide to making a submission to select committees.
papa.org.nz/blog
https://papa.org.nz/2024/10/18/sentencing-amendment-bill-2024/
https://papa.org.nz/2024/06/12/parliamentary-select-committee-submissions-101/