The Corrections Minister says reducing prisoner numbers just puts offenders into the community.
The Government's also scrapping funding for pre-sentencing cultural reports.
Those reports consider how an offender's personal background may have contributed to their crime.
It's scrapping Labour's target to reduce the prison population by 30% and will introduce legislation to cap sentence discounts at 40%.
Mark Mitchell told Mike Hosking that in 2017, about $40 thousand was spent on cultural reports, growing to $7.7 million in 2023.
He says there was a senior gang member advertising they could write a cultural report, guaranteeing to have the sentence reduced.
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