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'Prisoners need our compassion'
Every election year throws up issues around crime and punishment, says Kim Workman, retiring executive director of the Prison Fellowship of New Zealand, because the issues are vote catchers.
“It appears to the political parties that the tougher their stance on crime and punishment, the more votes they catch. We saw the parties use it last election and it wasn’t original then, it’s a populist thing that started in the 1980s; anyone promising to be tough with offenders caught votes.”
“Labour increased sentences and tightened up parole eligibility in 2002. Numbers of people in prison increased dramatically; we have seen a 50 percent rise in the prison population in the last eight years.”
What excites Kim about these depressing facts is that he senses New Zealanders are no longer satisfied with simplistic responses to the problem. “Parties target older, conservative people; they try to frighten them with statistics. What we need to do instead is listen to the people with the facts.
“The facts show we do not have high crime rates and we need to stop agencies from putting out information saying we do. For the past 15 years, offending in general has been down; only in the last year have we seen a slight increase in violent offending.”
Paradoxically, Kim, a former police senior sergeant, says that the slight increase may be a sign of confidence in our police. Success of campaigns such as “It’s Not OK”, can result in otherwise unreported crime being reported, resulting in an overall rise in reported offences.
He says that political parties advocating tougher sentences need to understand that 40 percent of criminals have mental health and alcohol problems that prisons do not address, and which remain on hold till the person is back in the community. Two-thirds of prisoners will re-offend after release.
The dilemma for National and Labour this election, explains Kim, is that “neither will want to appear like they have gone soft but they will want to appear smarter than they have been”. “National’s Fresh Start is them having their cake and eating it too. They promised support for youth offenders but now say part of the programme will be carried out in military establishments. The programme is perceived to be a boot camp; research shows boot camps do not work. New Zealand has a punitive streak in its make up and political parties keep appealing to it.”
Christian parties present Christians with a problem, says Kim. “In their race for political power, they overtake on the right. They adopt the views that give them the most votes.
“The Family First party in liaison with the Sensible Sentencing Trust advocates for harsher penalties for child abuse. That does not sit well with Christian compassion and mercy.
“These parties seem to come up with policy statements without doing prior research. The Kiwi Party is calling for a Royal Commission into child abuse. If they did their homework, they would know an interdepartmental committee is looking into this issue now. A Royal Commission does not take you far; it is a recommending body not an actioning body.”
Kim, who worships at the Christian Fellowship of Upper Hutt, says that Christians should remember “we are challenged by the gospel”. “Prisons are places of Jesus; Jesus talked constantly about prisoners (Matthew 25) and his first public sermon was about setting prisoners free (Luke 4:16-22).”
New Zealand prisons have, he says, 3000 Christian volunteers. “I’m proud to say that is the highest number in the world.”