Hon Clayton Cosgrove
Law and Order spokesperson

16 April 2009 Media Statement
Race based prisons have no place in New Zealand

Punishments for those who commit crimes should be the same no matter what race they are Labour Law and Order Spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove says.

“Creating different standards of punishment and rehabilitation based solely on race are wrong, Clayton Cosgrove said.

“Punishments for violent offenders who commit crimes against ordinary New Zealanders should not be based on an accident of birth and that is exactly what the Government is proposing.

“Targeted rehabilitative specialist programmes delivered within the mainstream prison system are appropriate and their benefits should continue to be explored.

“Unfortunately the Government is not proposing to do this; it is proposing to develop an entirely separate set of punishments and of privileges based solely on race.

“Minister of Maori Affairs Pita Sharples stance is an insult to victims of crimes.

“A rape victim or victim of any violent offence should know that their offender will be punished equally no matter what their race.

“Dr Sharples seems to care little for victims of crime if he believes that allowing violent offenders to go flatting or be given special privileges based on race is an appropriate punishment.

Clayton Cosgrove said Dr Sharples also needed to get his facts straight when it came to Labour’s record on rehabilitation of prisoners

In 1996, under a National government, 80 percent of those released from prison were reconvicted within 2 years, in 2005, under the Labour Government, that figure had reduced to 55.4 percent.

“That significant reduction in reducing reconviction rates was managed without having a separate and prison system for Maori,” Clayton Cosgrove system.

ENDS

© Scoop Media