To be clear on prisons and divestment, a short thread:

For a start, prisons have been proven not to deter crime of stop reoffending. Investing billions more in failed policy is callous for victims AND for criminalised communities (yes, we criminalise communities)

The good news is that there is ample evidence about what does cause and prevents crime- other systems have successfully invested in prevention, rehabilitation and reintegration to almost completely divest from the prison industrial syndrome (yes, prison is an industry)

For example, most of those who people our overcrowded prisons suffer serious mental health issues including post traumatic stress, brain injury, addiction, learning disabilities and cognitive diversity- not to mention abuse and violence throughout their early and adult lives.

Māori are also vastly and disproportionately targeted at every stage of our justice system. That means Māori are many times more likely to be stopped, arrested, charged, convicted and imprisoned for the SAME type of behaviour as Pākeha (not that Māori are more in fact 'criminal')

Wahine Māori are per capita the most imprisoned indigenous women in the world- that's right, we're doing worse that the US and Aus. This has huge implications for tamariki Māori who are already targeted for removal from their whānau and suffer massive rates of abuse in state care

Imprisonment of any person is known to generationally impact the whole whānau and community. Besides Māori, other communities of colour and the poor suffer high rates of imprisonment. Loss of parents, breadwinners, and loved ones make those families far more vulnerable.

Contrary to popular belief most people in our prisons aren't there for serious or violent offending. You can end up in prison for an little as failing to pay fines, that leads to community work you cant do since you're working to survive or suffer mental of physical barriers.

Even when we are focused on serious offences, violence, or Class A drug offending- for which there is a sentence of life imprisonment- or whatever else we're getting 'tough' on, we can no longer ignore the proven fact that imprisonment has failed to deter or prevent those crime.

Telling victims of communities that higher sentences or even more abusive prison conditions will keep them safe is callous and irresponsible.

We do know that other systems have successfully reduced offending rates to a point of eliminating prisons in almost all cases. Those models invest in preventive measures, community based high quality rehabilitation, mental healthcare, addiction treatment, and uphold human rights.

Reform also mean requires us as a Gov to acknowledge the sovereignty of tangata whenua and to hand over governance of this disproportionately Māori issues to Māori. We know te ao Māori approaches work for Māori and our colonial system has failed.

I often hear frustration from victims and others that we are prioritising the welfare of would be criminals other those who don't offend by asking for therapeutic or rehabilitative measures- in fact we are prioritising the welfare and safety of our whole community.

In fact, when politicians push for the failed 'tough on crime' policies they rarely, if ever, push for victim's access to care. Divestment from prison means investing in public health , mental health, housing and liveable social welfare benefits for victims.

So, today the state of our prisons, double bunking, abuse of inmates, the harrowing reports coming from our women's prison and the protest at Waikeria mean a broad inquiry into correction and reform of what happens inside prisons as a priority.

But, unless we commit to transformative change that allows us to divest from prisons in most cases- redirect resource to rehabilitation, to all the services that treat the causes of offending, community-based sentencing, and inequality- we can't say we have done enough.

The way we deal with the hardest issues, when prejudice is at its highest, is the measure of the strength and the goodness of our society