Heather du Plessis-Allan: Labour's finally admitted reducing prison populations was a bad idea

Chris Hipkins has just confirmed Labour is dropping its plan to get people out of jails.

When they first took over six years ago, Labour set a target of reducing the prison population by 30 percent in 15 years.

That target is now gone. Hipkins was asked about it today, and says there is no target for the next term.

This is massive, because Labour was celebrated for this. On November 29, 2018, there was a huge write up in the Guardian about how great Kelvin Davis was.

“The man on a mission to get New Zealand’s Māori out of prison”- said the headline 

Labour's never backed down from this target, never admitted this was a mistake. As crime rose, as our concern over crime rose, as people with ankle bracelets on committed crimes- Labour stood by this. 

And now they’ve backed down today. This is an admission that it was a bad idea, because of course it is.

How many crimes do we now have to point to where offenders have ankle bracelets on? They’ve already got in some sort of trouble, but they’re out in the community instead of in jail.

The young guy who shot up the construction site in Auckland earlier this year? He was at home with an ankle bracelet on, when he should’ve been in jail. His probation officer assessed that his risk of causing harm to other people because of the violent nature of his offending was high. 

The guy arrested in connection with the shooting in the park across the road from a family home in Point England, Auckland? He had an ankle bracelet on.

The guy with Waikato tattooed across his face who police are currently chasing, who they say is too dangerous for any of us to go anywhere near- he is accused of murdering someone with a knife and he was out with an ankle bracelet on.

Labour can’t say that they’re dropping the target because job done- because it’s not. 

At last count, prison population is only down 18 percent, that’s just over half of where they were aiming.

The only reason they’ve dropped this is because it’s a failure. It's made our country less safe, voters hate it, and they’re about to lose an election for doing things like this to New Zealand. 

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