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FEWER CRIMS LIKELY TO GO TO PRISON IN FUTURE(New Zealand Press Association Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Wellington, May 15 NZPA - Fewer criminals will go to prison in future, with more receiving community-based sentences, says Justice Minister Mark Burton. Speaking at the close of the Prison Fellowship's annual conference in Upper Hutt yesterday, Mr Burton said New Zealand's increasing rate of imprisonment was ``not sustainable, either financially or socially''. From a peak of 7610 inmates in March 2006, forecasts indicated the prison population could be nearing 9000 within five years. ``Every dollar we spend on a new prison is a dollar less for our health system or our children's education,'' he said. He said a ministerial working group was looking at three main areas for curbing the prison population: early intervention, using alternatives to prison (home detention, curfew and electronic tagging) more frequently, and making better use of prison resources. The group, led by the Justice Ministry, will report to Cabinet on ``Effective Interventions'' options mid year. As well as being much cheaper than imprisonment, home detention had much lower rates of reconviction: around 13 percent of people who serve a home detention sentence are subsequently imprisoned within the next two years. The equivalent figure for those who have served a prison sentence of less than two years is around 40 percent. ``[Home detention] enables offenders to more readily re-integrate into the community, which in turn reduces the chances of re-offending,'' Mr Burton said. However, he admitted that more work was needed to strengthen community-based sentences ``so that the public and the judiciary have confidence in them as a suitable and effective sanction''. This might include greater use of curfews and electronic tagging. There would always be a need for prisons, he said. ``For serious repeat offenders and hardened criminals from whom the public must be protected, there are no other viable options to imprisonment.'' But the emphasis was already shifting towards programmes for drug and alcohol treatment, skills training and work experience, in line with an ombudsman's report into prisons last year, and constituted ``a smarter use of resources''. Victims' rights were a key focus of the conference and Mr Burton used his speech to announce that Victim Support is to receive a $10.8 million boost over four years in Thursday's Budget to allow for its continual restructure. The Restorative Justice scheme, which brought offenders face-to-face with their victims, was also showing real decreases in re-offending, he said. Meanwhile, the Prison Fellowship is hopeful that a prison and criminal justice multi-party accord can be reached by Parliament. Nearly all political parties were represented at this weekend's conference, which drew about 280 people. However, Prison Fellowship spokesman Kim Workman criticised the Ministry of Justice and Department of Corrections for measuring success in terms of reduced re-offending rates. ``It should also measure success in terms of those victims who have experienced healing as part of the judicial process. ``That would mean that restorative practice would become part of the core business of both agencies, rather than as an optional add on.'' NZPA WGT rh dj |