Andrew Little seems to have embraced Labour’s criminal friendly justice policies by announcing he is looking at emptying the prisons.
There are too many people in jail who don’t need to be there, according to Justice Minister Andrew Little.
Name one. Most people want ratbags in prison, only Labour wants to tip them onto the streets to commit more crimes.
He plans to tackle the issue by looking at the way bail laws are being applied, and he also plans to reduce Maori offending while Labour is in office.
Yeah, how are you going to do that?
The government has been faced with projections that show if nothing is done, the prison population will increase by roughly 50 per cent over the next 10 years alone, Mr Little told TV3’s The Nation on Saturday.
Some of the issues include people who should be eligible for parole but don’t have access to the addiction or counselling courses in prison that they need to undertake, Mr Little said.
“They could be out doing productive, constructive things, but they’re banged up in prison.”
They could be doing productive, constructive things while banged up in prison…like breaking rocks.
He said people in prison with mental health problems and literacy problems aren’t getting the support they need either to overcome those issues.
Meanwhile, Mr Little said there would be a specific target for reducing Maori offending, but he did not detail the possible figure.
Yeah but how?
The previous National government planned to cut the rate of Maori offending by 25 per cent by 2025.
“I think we’ve set the overall target — the 30 per cent reduction in the prison population in 15 years,” Mr Little said.
Labour are working on putting a strategy together, but have been blindsided by the projected growth of the prison population, he said.
Labour continues with their catch and release crime policies.